The Last Waterbender
by Haikoui
Summary: The Southern Raiders found the last waterbender, leaving her mother alive, and took the child with them to the Fire Nation as a prisoner. Zutara AU. The avatar has not been found yet, and Zuko has not been banished yet, either. Rated T (and maybe M at some point… maybe!) for later chapters.
1. Chapter 1

**Title: **The Last Waterbender

**Author: **Haikoui

**Summary:** The Southern Raiders found the last waterbender, leaving her mother alive, and took the child with them to the Fire Nation as a prisoner. Zutara AU. The avatar has not been found yet, and Zuko has not been banished yet, either. Rated T (and maybe M at some point… maybe!) for later chapters.

**Disclaimer: **ATLA belongs to Nickelodeon (and Mike and Bryce).

**Notes: **First ATLA chapter fic. I hope you all will be intrigued by this first chapter, and I hope I'm not too much of a lazy ass to finish it…

* * *

**The Last Waterbender**

**Chapter 1**

The last thing Katara remembers is her brother's face as she is lugged to the ship. Sokka, face doused with fear, is crying and screaming for his sister to be returned. Her father is on the ground, spear slammed into ice, with his face in his hands. Her mother is running after the ship as it leaves. "KATARA," she shrieks, running on the ice and almost throwing herself into the water as the ship pulls away. "KATARA!"

"Silly waterbender," sneers the captain as he dumps the girl into a cell. "You should know how difficult it is to hide your bending when you're scared. You should have left your mother to deal with it. Now she will deal with the pain… and it is all your fault." He grins at her, a sharp-toothed grin that haunts her when she falls asleep in her tears.

She can't help it: she thinks back to only ten minutes ago, when she stumbled into her family's igloo and saw the captain above her mother, merciless. "I'll handle this," her mother said gently, and she, weak and terrified, caused the snow around her to move unpredictably. Of course, the captain, whose eyes were trained to detect even the slightest movement, recognized this, and he took her away.

She sleeps fitfully, wrapped up inside herself with only her small parka. Unbelievably enough, she's colder in the cell than outside, but she doesn't say a word because she's scared and timid and does _not_ want to die.

She is lucky in some respect—she's only a child. If she were older, perhaps some of the lower crew on the ship would not pity her. One of the guards who delivers her food brings her a blanket one night—albeit it's a thin one, but she's thankful nonetheless, however thankful an eight year old can be—and she sees the slight sadness in his eyes. But he's still Fire Nation. And he's the enemy. She says no words to him, because she was taught to fight them, and if she's pampered now, it only means she'll be tortured later.

She is on the ship for weeks, sick, tired, and hungry. They give her water, knowing she is too young to do anything with it—she is only eight and the last of her kind from the Southern Water Tribe. They give her food, but it's all mush and doesn't have many nutrients at all. They certainly don't let her on deck. An uncontrollable young waterbender is the last thing they need in the middle of the ocean, even if she isn't trained at all.

When they arrive at the Fire Nation, she is immediately taken to the dungeons, isolated, and lonely. The guards are far more harsh, more unyielding to her small stature. She's given food once a day. No water, unless she begs and grovels for it. Apparently any waterbender, despite his or her age, deserves nothing more than a bowl of stale oats.

One day, several months after her capture when she weighs far less than she is supposed to, the dungeon doors open and suddenly, she sees the guards in the hallway fall to their knees in a collective kneel.

The Fire Lord's son is here, and he is showing the dungeons to his children. The guards have been whispering about it for a while. Katara doesn't know much about the princes of the Fire Nation, but she knows she hates the Fire Lord more than anything, and she knows she hates anyone associated with him.

They take their time moving through the dungeon. Occasionally, Katara hears a scream of rage, presumably from a prisoner, and a harsh noise from one of the guards escorting the Fire Lord's son—Ozai, she hears someone say—and his children follow. Then the dungeons are quiet again. Katara eschews herself into a darker corner of her cell. She shuts her eyes, hoping they won't stop to look at her like some fish in a hollowed out ice cube she had back home.

"Father," comes a voice, "isn't this the last waterbender?"

Katara opens her eyes, squinting at the torch that is suddenly outside her cell. She can barely make out the figure of a young girl, about the same age as her. Katara herself is huddled in the corner, her hair long and unruly, her eyes wide and blue and frightened. She is the picture of pathetic.

Her eyes move to the Fire Lord's son, whose face is obscured by the shadow cast from the torch behind him, held by a guard. He's tall and muscular and hidden away in the darkness. Yet she can sense his power. She can feel the destruction he's capable of causing, and she shrinks away.

The Fire Lord's son—Ozai, she reminds herself—commends the girl for her knowledge with a snakelike voice, says that she is correct, and casts a pitying look at Katara. He carries on, and the girl follows, and it isn't until he moves when Katara sees a boy only slightly older than herself in front of the cell. His eyes are gold and shocked, as though he never imagined seeing a child in such a place as these.

"ZUKO!" A shout comes from down the hallway.

"I-I'll be right there, Father," he calls back, stepping closer to her.

Katara presses herself against the wall as much as she can, dipping her head into her knees. She's sweating. The sweat trembles in her fear.

There's a slight cough and she looks up despite herself.

"My name's Zuko," he whispers. Katara thinks to herself he's not very good at whispering, that he's actually very bad, because whispers are supposed to be quiet, and here he is whispering the loudest she's ever heard anyone whisper.

She steels herself and glares at him, as hard as an eight year old can glare.

"Are you really a waterbender?" he asks, a little louder this time.

She says nothing.

"What's your name?"

Still, she remains silent.

He huffs. "Fine. Waterbending peasant." He seems to try his hardest to look powerful and stalks away. There are echoes from down the hallway as he joins his father and sister, Katara assumes, and she retreats into the corner again and puts her head in her knees. The tension in her fades.

No one has called a peasant before. She clenches her hands into fist and squeezes her eyes shut. _No one_ has ever called her that. How dare he call her a peasant? Didn't he _know—_

But of course not. His father is the Fire Lord's son, and he himself is the grandson of the Fire Lord. She's heard stories about the Fire Lord before. Terrifying ones. That must mean the boy is a prince, and the other one, a princess. That means they are automatically the enemy.

Katara does not move for a very long while.

* * *

"Wake up," says a voice not too far away from her. Katara's eyes open only slightly, and she stares at the dark world around her through slits.

"Wake _up,"_ says the voice again, harsher this time, and suddenly, there's a tight hand around her forearm. She tumbles forward, coughing, and falls onto her stomach. The voice _tch_s and kicks her at her shin.

"_Wait,"_ snarls Katara, twisting her head and glaring at the guard with the torch in his hand.

"You've had your time waiting. Hurry up. One whole year here and you know nothing of the protocol. Get _up, _waterbender."

Katara pulls herself to her knees and casts hard eyes at the guard. "I don't normally get the pleasure of an open cell door," she spits at him. "What's the hurry?"

"All prisoners have to be in a lineup for General Iroh today."

Katara lets the guard take hold of her forearm again. She's bigger now, nine and a half, and she hates it. It means a year of her life has been wasted all because the spirits chose her to be a waterbender. "Better start a riot, then."

There's a slap on her cheek. It's hard, knocking her face to the side, and she turns and spits blood back in the guard's face immediately. He glowers at her and wipes his face, hissing, "Watch your mouth."

She knows when she's gone too far. Saying nothing, she matches his glare and waits before he drags her down the hallway with him.

When they reach some hall Katara's been to only several times in her year as a prisoner, she doesn't see a General Iroh. She sees a rather nice looking middle-aged man standing in the room with a younger man beside him. His hand is on the man's shoulder, who is taller than the first man himself, and he is smiling at the prisoners who are lined up in front of him.

"Thank you," he says graciously to the guard who brings Katara in. A couple of other guards have brought in some other prisoners at the same time, but as far as Katara's concerned, she is the only one who is a child. There are a handful of teenagers, but no one near her own age, and she feels even more alone in the sea of so-called criminals. And then, she realizes, the nice looking middle-aged man in the middle of the room _is _General Iroh.

General Iroh watches all of them carefully, then says something to the man beside him. The man looks at the line of prisoners and shrugs before murmuring something back—and then his eyes lock on hers. He says nothing to the general as she levels an icy look at him, and then he smiles ever so slightly. The general catches his look and finds Katara in the prisoner lineup before asking the man something else.

When they are finished whispering and muttering and debating and anything else Katara has no care for, General Iroh motions for a guard to help him. He points at several in the line and they are pulled roughly to the general himself. He nods appreciatively and they are sent somewhere to the side to wait. This happens several times, and it isn't before there are at least twenty of them in a corner waiting when she is pulled out with a handful of others.

General Iroh places a hand on her shoulder as she is sent with the rest of the prisoners. "Lu Ten," he says to the man at his side, "would you be so kind as to introduce yourself to our guest?" He turns away and calls out some more prisoners.

"I am Prince Lu Ten," says the man, bowing. "That is my father, General Iroh, Crown Prince of the Fire Nation, Dragon of the West."

Katara says nothing. Vaguely, she notes that the general is the son of the Fire Lord. She didn't know the Fire Lord had two sons.

"I apologize if this seems confusing," says Lu Ten, smiling slightly. He has no trouble smiling at anyone and everyone, Katara notices. "We are heading off for Ba Sing Se soon, and my father is looking to acquire some soldiers. We've been at sea establishing new colonies everywhere, so we had to come home before we head to our biggest conquest of all."

She says nothing still, and he continues, "I heard you are the last waterbender of the Southern Water Tribe."

Still silent, she watches him.

"I didn't know you'd be a kid," he says. "But you're the only waterbender in these dungeons, anyway, and it's pretty easy to tell." He motions to her eyes.

She looks away.

"Obviously we can't use you as a soldier for Ba Sing Se," says Lu Ten, "but you can be an assistant to my father."

An assistant? She turns her eyes back on him. He can see the fear in her eyes as he adds, "Not to worry. He will come to be a second father to you."

How could he suggest such a thing? She doesn't care that he's so tall, or that he's a prince. She gathers all the saliva she can and spits at his feet.

Immediately, there is commotion, and four guards are holding every single limb from her body. "You _dare_ act that way to a prince of the Fire Nation?" demands one guard.

"Put her down!" commands Lu Ten.

"My prince—"

"_Immediately!"_

"Yes, my prince," says the guard, and all four of them lower her to the floor.

Ashamed, she doesn't look at the prince in front of her. She didn't expect so much power in his voice, and she certainly didn't expect the words that came out of his mouth. All of the Fire Nation is scum, so why is he acting decent?

General Iroh, who saw everything, tells the guards he has acquired all the manpower he needs, and he approaches Lu Ten with a smile quirked on his mouth. "What is your name?" he asks of Katara, who is still too confused to respond.

"I apologize for the way the guards treated you," continues General Iroh when he doesn't receive an answer. "That is no way to treat a young lady such as yourself."

Katara is about to cry. She needs to hate them. Why are they making it so hard?

"Please," says Lu Ten, coming up beside his father, "what is your name?"

"Katara," she says before she can stop herself. She slaps a hand on her mouth, terrified.

General Iroh smiles. "Well, Katara. Are you ready to leave these dungeons?"

When they leave, she lets the tears slip from her eyes. They trail down her cheeks and betray her emotions to the world around her. The prisoners General Iroh has recruited are sent to be trained for the front lines, and she, Katara, is given a bed in the humble servants' quarters as he promises to pick her up before they leave for Ba Sing Se.

"Ba Sing Se is a key Earth Kingdom city, eager to resist the Fire Nation," says Lu Ten when he escorts her to the servant's quarters in the palace. "Fire Lord Azulon wishes for its capture."

"Why?" Katara says it before she can stop herself. It's the second word she's said to him, including her name.

Lu Ten's face is unreadable. "To expand the Fire Nation empire and its prosperity, of course."

He stops at a door and the guard beside it opens it for him, bowing at his waist for the young prince. Guiding Katara inside, he says, "This will be your home for the next few months as the rest train. When we depart, we will be gone for a long while. The head of servants knows you are here, and you will be taught to serve." He casts a grin at her. "Hopefully it's better than the dungeons."

She stares at the room in front of her. There are beds. Blankets. _Light._ Granted, there are many beds because all the servants sleep in one room, but there are _beds, _and _blankets, _and she catches the sob in her throat just before it comes out. Why are they making it so hard to hate them?

"Thank you," she whispers.

"You're welcome, Katara," says Lu Ten warmly. "I'll see you around the palace a little bit. You will probably be with the other kids, though."

She nods, her fists clenching at her sides, trying to keep her emotions from surfacing. Soon, she is by herself in the servants' quarters. When the rest of them come at night and prepare to sleep, they are surprised to see the young child in a bed, enclosed in a fetal position, and sleeping with tears dried on her cheeks.

* * *

The months pass slowly. She works with the other children her age. They work with her like she is any other servant child, but she knows they are uncomfortable, because she's a waterbender. When they go to bed every night, she hears what the older servants say about her.

"Prince Ozai is _furious,"_ says one of them, when Katara is supposed to be asleep. "He says it was foolish of General Iroh to bring in the waterbender. He says she's dangerous."

"The general says she's too young to do anything," says another. "She's not trained. She's almost ten, so what can she do? It'll take her years to master her element, and besides, she doesn't have a teacher here."

"At any rate, Prince Ozai is trying to get her out and back into the dungeons."

"That won't happen. Servants aren't allowed to bend, anyway. She's no different from the firebending children here, and the general's orders are more important than Prince Ozai's."

"Still… it _was _foolish of General Iroh."

"Yes, I suppose so. But she'll be out soon anyway. She'll be dead before the next solstice."

And those nights, Katara reminds herself that she hates all of them.

One morning, she wakes and finds a servant child—Ming—at the foot of her bed with something that resembled envy with his eyes. "The prince is here to see you," he says, tight-lipped, and runs off without specifying _which _prince, and Katara feels fear brew in the pit of her stomach. There is one prince she does not want to see, because when she sees him, she will be back in the dungeons.

When she exits the quarters, she finds Lu Ten standing with a young boy in the hallway, who comes up to the bottom of Lu Ten's ribcage. At first, she doesn't recognize him in broad daylight. But then it dawns on her. This is the other young prince of the Fire Nation. Prince Zuko.

"Good morning, Katara," says Lu Ten warmly. "I've just finished breakfast with my family. This is Prince Zuko, my cousin, the son of Prince Ozai."

Zuko, who was apparently waiting for a cue, says, "Hello."

"Hello," she says after a moment's hesitation. This is the boy who called her a waterbending peasant.

Zuko doesn't appear to recognize her. If he does, he hides it well. But she doubts it, because she was in rags and grime when he first saw her. Now, she is clean, albeit in plain clothing, and she is taller. Zuko, however, looks a little bothered with her failure at addressing him properly, but he says nothing.

Lu Ten tells her that General Iroh would like to speak with her, and he will take her to him when he takes Prince Zuko to his father. The two of the older princes, Katara learns, are in a meeting with the Fire Lord and the war council. They walk, Zuko and Katara both silent as Lu Ten speaks amiably to the both of them.

"My father is excited about going to Ba Sing Se," says Lu Ten. "He wants to visit every shop and taste every tea sample they have. Hopefully the King will see reason and will join the Fire Nation. That will make my father's job easy."

"And if not?" says Zuko, who is maybe a couple years older than Katara. Something she can't place is hiding in his voice.

Lu Ten shrugs. "I suppose it'll come to force, then. When the King sees how many soldiers we have, he should yield."

Soon, they are at a set of curtains Katara has passed a handful of times. They are in the fanciest location of the palace, where the Royal Family resides and does work. There, they wait until they hear commotion from beyond the curtains, and Lu Ten motions for Katara to stand straight.

"My father doesn't care," mutters Lu Ten. "My uncle is crazy, though." The last part is so quiet she has to struggle to hear him, and it's clear Zuko hasn't heard, because he's standing as straight as a pillar and looks as though he'll tip right over if someone so much as pokes him.

When General Iroh emerges from the curtains, he smiles so wide Katara fears he'll split his face in half. But immediately after, the second son makes his way out of the curtains, and she feels her heart thump crazily inside her chest. He is taller, more intimidating. Much more intimidating.

"Prince Lu Ten," he says coldly, "why have you brought a servant with you to greet us?" He ignores Zuko, who is trembling with the effort to stand as straight as possible.

From the corner of her eye, Katara sees Lu Ten's jaw clench, but he remains motionless otherwise.

"I asked him to, Ozai," says General Iroh. "I'm going to speak with this young lady about our trip to Ba Sing Se. Thank you, Lu Ten," he adds to his son, who bows respectfully.

"Be careful, Iroh," Prince Ozai replies. His voice is soft and terrifying all at once.

But before Prince Ozai can say anything else, Katara sees something in General Iroh's eyes shift. He no longer looks kind. "Quiet yourself, Ozai," says General Iroh. "You are forgetting your place." He levels a hard stare at his younger brother before the latter's eyes narrow. Prince Ozai looks away toward Zuko, seeming to notice him for the first time, and he says, "Come. You have a firebending lesson to attend. Hopefully you will be more competent today."

As they walk away, Katara sees Zuko's shoulders slump.

* * *

When General Iroh sends Lu Ten away, he takes Katara aside and sits her down at a Pai Sho table. She's confused at his actions, because if any of the other servants see her, they will surely be speaking about the general's favoritism. But he says simply, "Don't worry," and holds up a tile. "I don't suppose you know how to play Pai Sho."

She shakes her head. She's still not quite sure how to address him—does he go by "sir"? Or "sire"? She isn't sure. Remembering the look he had given Prince Ozai earlier, she reminds herself that he is still Fire Nation, and that they are cruel beasts, and that she does not want to play with fire.

He rumbles to himself as he hands her the tile. "Would you like to learn?"

Katara hesitates.

"Perhaps some other time," muses General Iroh. "I would like to talk to you about our trip to Ba Sing Se."

She waits for him to continue while trying to hand him back the tile.

"Keep it! I have plenty here in the palace," says General Iroh, smiling. "Katara, we are leaving for Ba Sing Se in two weeks. That's when the soldiers are finished training. The voyage will be long and hard. You will not see your friends here for a long time."

_I won't see them ever again,_ she corrects bitterly in her mind.

"Lu Ten will be coming with us," he says to her. "He will help you as a brother helps a sister. You are in no place to be put in war." He looks sad all of a sudden. Katara takes a handful of her shirt into her hand and squeezes as she waits for his next words. "You are the last Southern Water Tribe waterbender, and I will not…" The words fail to come out of his mouth before he sighs and finishes, "It is not my destiny."

"You won't send me to war?" she asks suddenly.

He looks surprised at her outburst. She rarely says a word to any of them. A full sentence is as common as a blue dragon moon. "No, my dear," he tells her.

"Will I be with Lu Ten, then?"

The general exhales heavily. "Lu Ten _will_ be fighting."

Her stomach turns. She didn't know that. "How old is he?" She realizes she's never known the man's age, and he appears to be much older than his cousin Zuko.

"He is nineteen," he says, and then continues, "Of course, if the king cooperates, there will be no fighting at all! And then we will all come home victorious, and everyone will be happy." His smile is large and genuine.

Katara smiles back before looking down.

"And," says General Iroh, "I will try to make your time worthwhile."

Suspicious, her head snaps back up to him.

"I have learned several waterbending forms from my time at sea establishing Fire Nation colonies," he continues. "I would be honored to teach you. It will be more useful for a waterbender to use those forms than a firebender!"

He laughs a hearty and full laugh. Katara hates herself for smiling so wide.

* * *

Two weeks can pass quickly, she finds. Very quickly. Before she knows it, Lu Ten has brought a small bag to her and is helping her pack two sets of additional servant clothing. "I'm sorry we can't bring you anything else," he says. "You can bring something of sentimental value, though."

She doesn't have anything, and she wishes for a moment she did. That's when she remembers the Pai Sho tile. She packs it while Lu Ten regards her in amusement.

"My father gave that to you, right?" he says.

"He let me keep it," she explains.

"Hah. He's a big fan."

She picks up her small bag and follows him out of the servants' quarters and through the halls of the palace. He leads her outside, where General Iroh is waiting with a palanquin.

Prince Ozai is there, too, to her horror.

He is there with his family, she notices. A kind woman is at his side, her hand holding Zuko's—she recognizes him because he is standing pillar-straight again—and another hand on a young girl's shoulder. Katara remembers the girl as the young princess who had visited her in the dungeons a year ago. Her hands are on her hips and she's smirking.

Prince Ozai bows toward his brother. There's a slight smile on his face. "Have a safe trip, Iroh."

"Thank you, Ozai," says the general. He looks at Zuko and the younger girl and says, "My nephew and my niece. I will miss you both greatly on my journey."

The girl _hmph_s and says, "Oh, yes, you better."

"Azula!" says the woman behind her.

Zuko gives his uncle a hug. "We'll miss you," he says, his voice muffled in General Iroh's armor.

General Iroh ruffles the young prince's hair and looks up at the woman by Prince Ozai's side. She is startlingly beautiful. Katara feels a pang inside her at the thought of her own mother.

"My dear Ursa," he says, "please write to me often about the palace ongoings."

"You know I will, Iroh," she says gently.

The general turns and directs Katara to a small group of older servants who are also traveling to Ba Sing Se. When she is settled with them, he boards the palanquin with Lu Ten.

Katara hears the shrill voice of the young princess call out, "_Good luck_, Uncle Iroh," and reminds herself that she _hates_ the Fire Nation and every single person in it.

* * *

**I hope you liked the first chapter. And I really hope I can keep up with it! I have a bad habit of starting things and then not finishing them, which is why I do oneshots so much because then I don't have to worry about them. If I don't update often, PLEASE bother me about it! I don't care if I haven't updated for five years. Make me update!**

**Katara is young. She's spent a year in a dungeon. If she's out of character, I'll try to pin it on that. She'll grow to fit her actual personality though.**

**Thanks for reading! Please review.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: **I don't own ATLA. It belongs to Nickelodeon, as well as Mike and Bryce.

* * *

**Chapter 2**

The beginning of the trip is exhausting. The fleet is large and Katara herself has a hard time imagining how all the soldiers will be able to make land. Whenever the soldiers aren't asleep, they're training—Lu Ten among them, his firebending a sight to behold. He is skilled with any weapon handed to him, but he does best with his bare hands.

Katara is housed with the rest of the servants, and she learns to work quickly at mealtimes in order to get out of the way when the soldiers go back to train. General Iroh is the Dragon of the West, she finds, because he's trained the best of the best. The benders under his command, as well as the nonbending soldiers, are the best of the best.

Some of the soldiers' faces she recognizes. They were her prisonmates. Of course, they are only a handful of the soldiers on her ship—the rest of the former prisoners are dispersed throughout the remainder of the fleet, ready to fight on the front lines.

Katara doesn't speak to Lu Ten often. The rest of the soldiers are big and intimidating, and she only manages to cover half of their heights. But, for the most part, she is with the other servants, and when she isn't with them, she's with General Iroh, who is intent on carrying out his promise of teaching her waterbending forms.

"I am no waterbender," he says to her, chuckling. "But I have learned much about them. I have tried to integrate waterbending style with my firebending, but I would like to teach you the forms to see if I can teach as well as I learn."

He teaches her stances and provides her with a bucket of water to work with. He doesn't know how to explain what it should feel like to her, for obvious reasons, but Katara learns that he's doing his best.

"Every day is filled with war and sadness," he says to her one day after she asks why he's teaching her. "I want to be able to see someone happy."

Katara decides then that despite all her efforts, she _can't_ hate General Iroh. In fact, she rather likes him.

Of course, she is nowhere close to being any good at waterbending at all—and the thought of escaping _has _crossed her mind, but as much as she tries to pledge herself one hundred percent to the idea, she just can't do it. The general probably knows this and yet—somehow—he still takes the time to help her hone her skills.

* * *

One rare day finds Katara sent to Lu Ten to retrieve him for his father. He is in the middle of training and when she locates him, she notes the lack of a telltale twinkle in his eyes she can normally subconsciously count on. She hasn't seen him for a while, so before she can help herself, she asks him, "What's wrong?"

He's surprised at her words, but doesn't do much other than raise his eyebrows at her. "You're going to have to expand on your question," he tells her.

She feels her cheeks grow hot and she corrects herself. "You look… different," she says, unable to fully explain.

"You'll find that in due time, everyone will look different," he murmurs. "Now, take me to my father, if you please."

She starts on toward the general direction of General Iroh with him walking beside her, dwarfing her with his height. She tries not to look at him. It's hard not to—she has grown accustomed to the spark in his eyes, and now… it's gone, and she's worried.

She doesn't know why she's worried. Is it because she doesn't hate him?

_Of course you don't hate him, _says a snide voice in Katara's head. _He pulled you out of the dungeons. He gave you freedom. He treats you more than a peasant. He's— _And then she stops, her eyes widening, and she falters in the middle of the hallway of the ship through which she and Lu Ten are walking. _He's almost like an older brother…_

The thought of Sokka fills her head and she feels her eyes brim with tears.

"Katara?" Lu Ten's voice beside her makes her head pound. "Katara, what's wrong? Why are you crying?"

"I miss my brother," she says tightly, struggling not to cry. "I miss him and my mother and my father."

Through her blurred vision, she sees Lu Ten move in front of her, getting on his knees to level his eyes with hers. He says nothing for a long moment and Katara sniffs, holding her hands to her eyes. She can't let him see her as such a coward. As the last waterbender from the Southern Water Tribe, it won't do her much good.

But soon she feels large hands wrapping around each of her wrists. Her hands are pulled away from her face, and in front of her is Lu Ten with a smile. "I'll make you a deal," he says.

She hiccups and leers at him, trying to put as much power into it as possible—_stop crying,_ she tells herself.

"When we're done with Ba Sing Se," he continues calmly, "I'll let you send a message to your family, using my messenger hawk."

Katara is so shocked she stops crying. She hiccups again but closes her mouth and stares, eyes wide, at Lu Ten, who adds, nonplussed, "Just promise me something, alright?"

She nods so fervently her head feels as though it will fly right off.

"Promise not to be worried about me," he says. "Promise you'll stay with my father unless he tells you otherwise. Promise to let _me_ do the work. Promise to be responsible about it and to let me treat you like a sort of sister I didn't have." He waits for a moment. "My cousin—Zuko's sister, Princess Azula—is your age. I was never a brotherly figure to her. Actually, no one is. She's her own little fire in her own right. But let me be that to you. Let me do something right for once. Agni knows this war has done nothing but cause harm."

Katara can hardly believe the words came out of his mouth. A prince of the Fire Nation, admitting the war has always been a mistake? And all that about—about siblings—just the thought of it renders her to tears again, but she holds them back stubbornly. She'll do anything to send that message. General Iroh and Prince Lu Ten… they are the exceptions to the Fire Nation.

"So can you promise me that, Katara?" Lu Ten asks when she doesn't reply immediately.

"Yes," she breathes shakily. "Yes. Thank you so much. Thank you."

He lets go of her wrists and pats her on her head. "You're welcome. Now, won't you take me to my father?"

She grabs his arm and runs to find General Iroh.

* * *

One day, General Iroh receives a messenger hawk from his brother. Katara isn't in the room when it arrives, but she hears about it from two other servants.

"Someone said the princess challenged Prince Zuko to a duel for the first time, and _won,_" whispers one of the younger servants to Katara the day the message arrives. "Can you believe that? Prince Ozai must be either very furious or very proud."

"Probably furious," says another young one. "His oldest son lost to his younger sister. That's shameful on Prince Ozai for having a weakling as his firstborn."

"Soon, the princess could probably challenge Prince Lu Ten," says the first.

The rest of it is left unsaid, a statement that would border on treachery: _she could probably win._

Katara shoves a hand into her pocket and grabs a hold on her Pai Sho tile. "Lu Ten would refuse."

"_Prince _Lu Ten," corrects both of the young servants with her. The second shakes his head. "You need to learn about respect, Katara."

"Can't he just refuse a duel?" asks Katara.

"Depends on the duel," says the first servant. "Rei, be a little more nice. It's not like _you_ were handpicked by General Iroh and Prince Lu Ten to accompany them to Ba Sing Se straight out of prison."

The second servant, Rei, folds his arms across his chest and huffs out of his mouth.

"What kind of duel can't Lu Ten refuse?"

"_Prince_ Lu Ten," mutters Rei.

"Well," says the first, shooting Rei a glare, "refusing any sort of duel would be a sort of mark against your honor. In the royal family, you're supposed to accept a duel to show your strength. A typical spar would be alright to refuse, although it generally isn't recommended. A challenge to demonstrate abilities—say, for practice purposes—is more dishonorable to refuse."

"That doesn't sound too bad," says Katara. "Besides, it's Lu T—_Prince _Lu Ten who's older and who can easily get away with refusing stuff like that."

Rei unfolds his arms and says, "That's true, but it still doesn't look very good. The royal family is supposed to look tough and invulnerable. Jao Ra, I'm going to go check up on duty." He gives a quick nod before turning and walking away.

"See you back in the bunks," calls the first servant, Jao Ra. "Anyway. The most important duel, and the most common among the royal family, is an Agni Kai. If you're challenged, you're basically not supposed to turn it down, at all. It doesn't matter if the person who challenges you is younger than you or not. If they challenge you, it's because they know they're good enough to beat you." Jao Ra pauses. "A lot of times in Fire Nation history, the royal family shifted powers because of Agni Kais."

"So if Azula challenges Lu Ten to an Agni Kai—"

"_Princess _Azula," reminds Jao Ra. "And Prince Lu Ten. But what you said is pretty unlikely. The princess is your age, maybe younger. And she'd have to challenge Prince Zuko first." He shakes his head. "I would hate being him. He must feel awful, being the weakling in such a powerful family."

Katara frowns. "You shouldn't say—" But then she remembers Zuko and his angry, young face spitting the word _peasant!_ at her, and she stops.

Jao Ra purses his lips, pats her on her shoulder, and says, "I'm going to go check up on duty, too. See you later, Katara."

"Bye," she says, watching him leave, before letting go of the Pai Sho tile in her pocket.

* * *

General Iroh pulls her on deck for a waterbending session when a soldier arrives and salutes dutifully. "Sir, we've sighted the Earth Kingdom."

"Excellent," says the general, smiling widely. "Gather all our troops and have them remain on the ships. Send word to the rest of the fleet to dock out of sight from any villages. This ship will be the only one to dock publicly. All soldiers will remain on the ship except for a select few who will accompany Prince Lu Ten and me. We will make way to Ba Sing Se and speak with the king."

"Yes, sir," says the soldier, saluting respectfully again, before heading away. General Iroh breathes in deeply and smiles at Katara.

"I do not know if we will be able to have your lesson right now, after all," says Iroh. "Perhaps you will like to join me for tea with Lu Ten before we dock?"

Katara accepts and follows him back within the depths of the ship. Summoned quickly, Lu Ten arrives and sits down with them, and begins to speak of diplomacy and strategy with his father, everything Katara does not understand.

Well, most of it, she does not understand. The more she listens, the more she catches bits and pieces which remind her of her father and his council meetings, on which Sokka eavesdropped back when she was younger.

Soon, they're discussing the small band of soldiers who will accompany them into Ba Sing Se. Katara sits up straight and listens for any familiar names.

Lu Ten senses her movement and says, "Katara, I'm sorry, but I don't think you can come on this one."

"What?" she demands. "Why not?"

"It might not be safe."

"I—" She's a bit hurt, to be honest. "I'm old enough."

Iroh speaks up, laying a gentle hand on her shoulder. "Lu Ten is right, Katara. You must remain here with the rest of the servants and soldiers."

"Won't it be better for you if you have a Water Tribe representative with you?" she asks. "You won't be much a threat, then. Right?"

"Not if the Water Tribe representative was a prisoner for a year," says Lu Ten. "People have heard about you, Katara."

She wants to ask how, but one look from him reminds her to let him take care of her, because then she can write to her family.

"You can stay here with the rest of the soldiers," says Iroh. "They won't hurt you."

She doesn't look away from him. She has to be strong. "I know they won't," she says. "You're the general."

Beside her, Lu Ten chuckles, and he says, "Good work, Katara. You're learning."

Iroh folds his hands on his lap. "I can leave you with the servants, if you prefer. Of course, you know you can't waterbend unless I am teaching you."

"I know," she confirms.

"Do you have friends who can take care of you?"

Katara thinks of Jao Ra and Rei. "Yeah," she tells him. "I think so."

Iroh looks pleased. His hands grasp onto the warm mug of tea in front of him as he takes a long, contemplative sip. "You have come a long way from the prisons, Katara."

She hesitates. She wasn't expecting this. "You're right," she says after a second.

Lu Ten shifts, putting his own mug of tea down. "Father, where are you going with this?"

"I am deciding," says Iroh, "what to do after Ba Sing Se, when we go home."

Katara feels her entire body go rigid. "You can't send me back," she says. "You can't!"

"I will not send you back to the prisons," says Iroh gently. "But I cannot take you back to the Fire Nation, where Ozai will surely have you thrown back into the tower. He will tell the Fire Lord that your purpose has been fulfilled and you are no longer needed. The Fire Lord will surely order your return to the prisons. I cannot override the Fire Lord's orders."

"What will you do?" inquires Lu Ten beside Katara.

"I do not know, Lu Ten," says Iroh, taking another sip from his hot tea. "I cannot return her to the Southern Water Tribe, either. I would be branded a traitor."

"Keep her with us, then," says Lu Ten.

"He just said I can't stay in the Fire Nation," says Katara.

Lu Ten purses his lips. "We would always have to be at sea, if that's the case."

"_No,_" says Katara. "I'm not letting you do that because of me."

Iroh, taken aback, looks at Lu Ten inquisitively. "What did you tell her?"

"I didn't tell her anything," says Lu Ten. His fingers twitch at his side. "She's doing this all on her own."

The general looks at Katara with something along the lines of amusement. "You have fire in you, my dear waterbender."

She stiffens, but he only continues, "We will come up with a solution after we have claimed Ba Sing Se."

A few minutes later, Katara is walking back to her bunk in the servants' quarters of the ship, and she falls asleep wondering where the fire in her came from.

* * *

The day General Iroh and Prince Lu Ten leave with their small band of soldiers is the day Rei sprains his ankle while bringing a basket of dirtied clothes to the washroom.

"Rei!" says Jao Ra, helping the boy lean against the wall. "How could you be so clumsy?"

"I'm clumsy?" snaps Rei. "At least I was doing my work. What were you doing?"

"Stop fighting," says Katara, taking Rei's ankle and inspecting it carefully. "How did you do this?"

Rei tries to stand, but Jao Ra pushes his shoulders back. "Stay still," he says as Katara carefully wraps up Rei's ankle. "You don't want to hurt it anymore."

"You should probably soak your foot in cold water to get rid of the pain," says Katara, who has seen some of the healers on the ship tend to injured soldiers as a result of their training. "Then, once it's numb, you can soak it in some warm water."

"What does that do?" asks Jao Ra curiously. Rei groans.

"I think it helps blood flow," says Katara as she gently places Rei's foot back on the floor. "Let's take him back. Someone else can get all of this," she adds, motioning to the clothes basket.

She and Jao Ra heave Rei up by his shoulders. Rei moans and whines and Jao Ra makes fun of him for his impatience, but once they arrive at the bunks and Rei's foot is placed in cold water, he stops complaining and lies back against his bed.

"We're probably going to have to make runs to replace the ice," says Katara, noting how quickly the ice starts to melt in the bucket.

"Sorry," says Rei from his spot on his bed. "The melting part happens."

"It's what happens when you're a firebender," says Jao Ra.

"Oh," says Katara. "I didn't know that." The part about melting is true, but she also didn't know Rei was a firebender.

"Speaking of bending," says Rei, who adjusts his position so that he is leaning against his elbows and so that he is no longer lying on the bed with his foot dangling in the water, "can't you bend the water to ice so you don't have to make runs?"

"I'm not allowed to waterbend," she says, frowning. "None of us are allowed to bend."

Jao Ra submerges one of his hands in the water. "I can go make a run now, if you want. It's getting pretty warm."

"Katara, just try it," says Rei.

"I'm not very good," she says. She hasn't ever made ice before. "I haven't worked on water temperature."

"Just try it," parrots Jao Ra.

Katara holds a hand out and feels for the water. When she has it, she tries to make it colder. She doesn't know how to do it—she tries pulling and pushing the water a certain direction, like General Iroh has tried to teach her to do, but in the end, it only causes a rippling motion.

"Well," says Rei, "at least it's massaging my leg a little."

"I can get ice," says Jao Ra.

"No," says Katara suddenly. "I'm going to get this." She's frustrated. She knows she's betraying Iroh, waterbending like this, but she has a chance to learn something outside of lessons and she wants to take it. "Let me try putting my hand in the water."

She does. For a moment, her hand feels funny. She wants to make the water colder, and with her hand in the water, it's certainly easier to do—she hears Rei say, "Oh, that's a little better"—but something is drawing her hand closer to Rei's injured ankle. Before she knows it, she's grabbing onto his ankle and Rei says, "Hey, watch it!"

"Wait," says Jao Ra. "Look."

Katara whips her eyes to her hand. It's encased in a incandescent blue, tingling and pulsing. With a gasp, she rips her hand out of the water and stares at it. "What's wrong with me?" she cries. She hides her hand behind her and stands up quickly. "I'm so sorry—"

"No," says Rei, sitting up completely now. "Come back."

"Why?" she asks. "I was hurting you."

"No," says Jao Ra, watching her with interest. "I think you were healing him!"

She falters, looking back and forth from Rei to Jao Ra, before looking down at her hand. "I was?"

"It felt nice," says Rei, before he goes red. He flops back onto the bed and says nothing else.

"Try it again," says Jao Ra encouragingly.

She edges closer, not sure of how she had done it, but she puts her hand back into the water and holds Rei's ankle. Rei doesn't move. Katara waits and tries to do the same thing she had done before—she holds onto the water and tries to make it colder. Before long, the alien blue is back, and Rei makes an odd noise.

"How is that?" asks Jao Ra, looking at Rei.

"Better," says Rei. His hands, which had been clenching the sheets on his bunk, relax. "Still painful, but better."

Katara tries to hold onto the feeling for as long as she can—she can feel weird bumps and knots through the odd blue water—but soon, she loses them and the color fades away. "Are you okay?"

Rei sits up and tries to move his ankle. "It's better," he says again, but his face twists into a grimace slightly. "You did all you could, I guess. It's still a bad ankle."

She dunks her hand in the water again. "Let me try one more—"

"Katara," says Jao Ra, "it's fine. Just try to make the water a little colder."

Deflating, she feels for the water and lowers the temperature. "Is that okay?"

Rei nods and leans back again.

She gets up and wipes her hand dry on her clothes. "I'm going to go get the clothes and take them to the washroom." She moves to leave when Jao Ra stops her.

"I'll go," says Jao Ra. "You stay here and keep Rei's bucket cold."

"Okay," she says, letting him leave. She sits cross-legged by the bucket and watches Rei inhale and exhale. The water moves when he does so. She dips a finger in. It's already warm. She submerges her hand further and fixes the temperature again.

"Thanks," says Rei from the bed.

"You're welcome."

There's silence for a small while. Then—"Thanks for healing me, too."

She looks at his figure on the bed, surprised. "I didn't heal you, though."

"You did," he says. "Kind of. Bending is hard at first. I guess you did alright, but I don't know how waterbending works."

She looks back at the water and dips her hand in again. It's warm. She lowers the temperature; she finds that it gets easier every time she tries it.

"You know," Rei begins again, "I thought you were a bit of a hassle, being a waterbender and all. Everyone thought you weren't supposed to be here. That the general's losing his mind."

Suddenly bitter, she loses control of the water, and the water turns to ice completely. Rei shouts in shock, and Katara says, "_Sorry! _Wait—I'll fix it—!" She focuses on her hand, which is stuck in the ice with Rei's ankle, and wills the temperature to rise. It takes a longer amount of time to do, but she does it, and soon his ankle and her hand are free in ice-cold water.

Rei hisses and glares. "Did you want me to finish? I was going to say something _nice."_

"Sorry," she repeats hastily. "Keep going."

He huffs and lies back down. "Anyway, people said it was dangerous, bringing a waterbender in the middle of the ocean." He looks at her from the corner of his eye, perhaps to make sure she has control over the water before she ices him. "But you haven't done anything wrong. We thought you'd be demanding and oppressive, but you… weren't. You were quiet and didn't talk to anyone."

"I didn't want to talk to anyone," says Katara, whose hands are now making rippling motions on the water. It's calming her. The push and pull motion of it, she finds, is like the tea Iroh brews himself—it calms her, and it lets her think before she acts or speaks irrationally. With the words coming out of Rei's mouth, she needs it.

"So why do you talk to me and Jao Ra?" asks Rei, staring up at the bunk above him.

She sits quietly for a little while, letting her fingers manipulate the water in the bucket. It isn't until Rei repeats the question when she answers.

"You remind me of my family back home," she says. "You remind of my brother."

"Are we like him?" says Rei.

"You a little more than Jao Ra," says Katara. "You remind me of him because you want people to take you seriously."

"I do?"

"Yeah. I've seen you. You like to sit with the older boys during mealtime and you like to take on the chores meant for the adults."

Rei lies quietly, contemplatively. Soon, Jao Ra is back with an extra bucket of ice. "Just in case you get tired," says Jao Ra.

"Katara," says Rei suddenly, as she dumps a couple cubes of ice into the bucket, "how old are you?"

"Almost ten," she replies.

"I'm thirteen," Jao Ra tells Katara.

Rei hums. "Maybe when you get a little older, you'll know how it feels when you want to be an adult, too."

"How old are you?" asks Katara.

"I'm also thirteen," says Rei.

"Older than Prince Zuko," says Jao Ra. "Not too old, though. If Prince Ozai would let Prince Zuko and Princess Azula play with servant kids, I bet we'd all be good friends by now." He leans against the bunk and frowns. "But I guess Prince Zuko wouldn't be as fun. He isn't as talented as the princess, from what we've heard."

Katara's brows furrow. They've established that point before.

"But we can't make fun of that point," says Rei. "We're just servants. He's the prince. There's no point. Besides, it'd be better being friends with Prince Lu Ten. Once General Iroh is Fire Lord, he'll be the crown prince and first in line for the throne." He regards Katara enviously. "You've already mastered that."

Katara shakes her head. "I'm not friends with him. I'm not friends with anyone."

"Not even us?" says Jao Ra.

She bites her lip, trying to think of a way to fix her words. "I guess you're as close as I can get," she says.

"Good," says Jao Ra.

Rei doesn't say anything at first, but he smiles and stares up at the ceiling again. A moment later, he says, "Well, come on, the water's getting warm!"

She jumps and dips her hand into the water again, and Jao Ra laughs.

* * *

A week later, Lu Ten and General Iroh are back.

"Prepare the troops," Lu Ten commands to the captains who are rushing to his orders. "We head for Ba Sing Se at dawn."

"What happened?" Katara asks hurriedly, running up to him. "How come they didn't—"

But Lu Ten doesn't look at her. "Nonbenders will be stationed on the front lines for hand-to-hand combat. Firebenders will be both on the front lines and in the back to protect the general."

"Lu Ten_," _she whispers frantically, "what's going on?"

He casts a look over her so cold she fears she'll be turned into ice. "This is none of your business," he says. "Head back and play with your friends."

"Lu Ten," she starts, eyes wide and heart pounding.

Lu Ten turns away and shouts more commands at the soldiers who are assembling at the ends of the ship's hallways. Katara stands for a moment in shock.

She doesn't want to play. She wants answers. But Lu Ten won't give them to her.

She runs past him, knocking him to the side—his grunt is both painful and pleasing—and she charges to where she knows General Iroh will be. His office. With his tea. His letters. His Pai Sho table and tiles.

Katara raps on the door with as much ferocity as she can muster, and thirty seconds later, it pulls open to reveal a very tired General Iroh. "Katara," he says with surprise.

"What happened?" she demands, shaking. "What's wrong with Lu Ten? Are you okay?"

Iroh's eyes soften, but not in the way she wants them to. He looks more hopeless than kind. "This is war, my dear," he says. "And this is Lu Ten's time to fight for his nation." He motions to the kettle in the middle of the room, on a short wooden table. "Would you like some tea?"

She accepts, and once she takes hold of a mug, the tea inside jitters with her shaking hands. "Peace, Katara," says Iroh. "You are safe here."

"I want to come with you," she says.

"I need you to stay here."

"No!" The force in her voice should surprise Katara. It doesn't. "I _need_ to come with you." Her voice trembles along with her hands. She has to put the mug down to control herself. "I won't lose another family."

Iroh sits shock still as he watches her. Finally, he murmurs, "You are too young to be dealing with this, my dear Katara. Are you sure we are your family?"

"You and Lu Ten might be Fire Nation," she says quietly, "but you freed me from the prisons."

"Is that all?"

She stares at her mug. The tea ripples from the force of it. "Lu Ten promised I could send a message to my family. He asked me to let him treat me like his younger sister."

The sound of another mug being placed on the table reaches her ears. She looks up from her tea and sees Iroh chuckling to himself. "Ah, Lu Ten," he says. "He is much like me. He listens to his heart. But, unfortunately, the time calls for my son to listen to his mind."

The general waits for a small while as he replenishes his mug with more tea from the kettle. When he finishes, he says to Katara, "I expect Lu Ten will try to uphold his promise, despite what you may think from his current actions."

She hesitates. "_Try_ to?"

"Nothing is certain in the art of war," says Iroh. "The only guarantee is that it changes people. Sometimes, war gives us gifts we could never expect to have." He motions to her. "Other times, it shifts the balance of the world, for better or for worse. But most of all, it changes a person. It creates a lifetime of _what-if_s, and it has the potential to take people away, both from their minds and from their bodies."

Katara doesn't want to think about Lu Ten on the battlefield.

"Why does Lu Ten have to fight?" says Katara. "Isn't he… isn't he in line for the throne after you? Wouldn't it be bad if something happened?"

"Lu Ten admires his honor and admires his nation. He chose this path himself, and only he himself can reap the benefits of choosing this path."

Katara swallows and stills her hands. Once she's settled enough, she picks up her mug and takes a sip.

"I hope you don't win," she says suddenly. "But I hope you do, too."

Iroh lets a laugh rumble from his belly. "I hope the same thing, my dear."

* * *

**Second chapter! This one was longer.**

**I appreciate the reviews for the first chapter. I'm trying to establish where Katara gets her motherly nature from with these first few chapters, so bear with me. Thanks so much for following, favorite-ing, and/or reviewing! Please keep it up!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: **I don't own ATLA! Nope, not me! Never me… gosh…

**Notes: **This chapter goes through almost two years of Katara's life. I hope it doesn't seem too hurried.

* * *

**Chapter 3**

Lu Ten doesn't talk to Katara.

Actually, Lu Ten doesn't even look at her. It takes her only a small amount of time to learn that he's upset with her. The general tells her it's because he'd wanted her to stay behind. "War is no place for children," says Iroh as she waits with him for Lu Ten to finish dressing in his armor.

Katara starts to speak, but the door opens and Lu Ten emerges, dressed in impeccable gleaming battle armor. "Let's go," he says quietly, moving past them.

Fuming, she runs up to his side and marches beside him. He says nothing, walking quickly, and Katara does her best to keep her breathing even.

Finally, he stops. "I'm not going to discuss anything with you, Katara," he says. "I thought I made myself clear."

"You not talking to me doesn't make things clear," she says, blowing air from her mouth. "It makes things pretty unclear!"

"Katara."

"You and all your—" She flaps her hands at him, at his fancy armor and his ramrod straight posture. "—you know, all your _royalty_ is really annoying sometimes. Why are you _mad_ at me? Why can't you answer that?"

"Katara," he says, a hand coming up to cover his eyes in frustration, "I said before that I wanted to _protect_ you. I can't do that if you're coming to the battlefield with me!"

Katara blinks. Of course. How could she have missed _that? _

"I want to come," she says to him.

He doesn't put his hand down. He only stands there and exhales. Finally, he says, "I can't stop you, can I?"

She shakes her head before realizing he's not looking at her through his fingers, and she confirms, "No." A second later, she grins to herself. "You're learning."

"And _you,"_ he says, lowering his hand to his side, "are becoming snarky. Who knew you had such a mouth between so much silence?"

Katara's smile fades. He starts walking again, and she jogs to keep up with him. "Does this mean you're talking to me again?"

"I suppose I can't not talk to you," says Lu Ten. "And my father is not forbidding you from coming with us. My only wish was for you to follow my father's orders. However, he's very… lenient on allowing people to choose their own paths." He shoots her a sidelong glance. "I think he believes all actions lead to a specific outcome, or some weird philosophy that goes through his head."

"But you're still mad at me," says Katara.

"I was never _mad_ at you," says Lu Ten. "Agni, Katara. You're a _child._ You're—what, nine?"

"Almost ten," she says. She thinks about it a little more. "Two more weeks."

He nods to himself. "You're a child. You're still learning. So many kids make so many mistakes. Zuko, for one…" Lu Ten trails off. Katara feels the odd urge to laugh. "Let's just say he's not exactly what Uncle Ozai had in mind for a son," he finishes, looking uncomfortable. "But that's beside the point. I won't stop you from coming with us because it's a learning experience. At least, that's what my father would tell you."

"Thanks," says Katara, looking down. "I guess I just feel like I need to do _something."_

"No child should feel that way," says Lu Ten. "Your birthday is in a couple weeks, you said?"

Katara nods. They stop walking as Lu Ten reaches one soldier waiting with General Iroh to escort them to land off of the ship.

"I'll be sure to win this as my gift for you," says Lu Ten. "This I promise."

He salutes and turns away, walking off the ship.

* * *

Camp is set up in the woods far from Ba Sing Se. The soldiers are quiet. At least, the ones near Katara are. Further down the march, she hears soldiers laughing raucously and making pathetic imitations of Earth Kingdom citizens attempting to block their upcoming siege.

She thinks this is her chance to run away. To go back to the South Pole and to find her family.

And then she thinks about General Iroh and Lu Ten.

She doesn't sleep with the other soldiers. General Iroh apologizes for not having a proper sleeping arrangement for her, but he allows her to sleep with the other assistants who have come along to tend to injuries. She flushes when she realizes she hasn't revealed her healing abilities to the general. He doesn't need to know she was waterbending when she wasn't supposed to. Thankfully, the physicians have all become relatively used to her presence on the ship, and she doesn't receive as many ill-fated looks toward her as she used to.

She also finds Jao Ra with the other physicians. "They need extra stable hands," Jao Ra explains when she hugs him and asks why he's there and not back on the ships. "I volunteered."

"Where's Rei?" she asks.

Jao Ra turns red with embarrassment. "He got punished," he says. "Someone saw him firebending at a soldier because the soldier saw his injured ankle and called him useless. He was reported."

"So where is he?"

"Probably doing more work on the ships than he would've liked," Jao Ra says, sighing. "That can't be good for his leg."

Katara agrees with him on the outside, but inside, she feels her stomach twisting. If only she fully healed Rei's leg…

The next morning, Katara finds that having Jao Ra with her is a blessing. The soldiers are gone the second sunlight peaks over the horizon—it's when firebenders rise and work best—and Lu Ten is gone with them.

"They're gone?" she asks quietly when she brings hot water to General Iroh's tent. He will be leaving later in the day to oversee the battle, she learns later.

There is a distant boom. "Yes," says General Iroh. He takes the hot water from her. "They have left for the Outer Wall of Ba Sing Se."

"And you—" She isn't supposed to speak up like this. "You just let Lu Ten go?"

"He chose his path, Katara."

"But—"

"Katara!" says Iroh. She hears a trace of the same thing she heard when he had addressed Prince Ozai back in the Fire Nation before they left for Ba Sing Se. "No more."

She brings the tray to her chest and bows. "Yes, General Iroh," she murmurs.

When she arrives at the physicians' tent, she finds Jao Ra bustling about with other Fire Nation physicians to gather bandages and creams. "What's going on?" she asks.

"The first round of soldiers is coming back," says one of the adult physicians behind her. "We have to tend to them."

* * *

Katara learns that day that she hates blood.

Thankfully, the adults allow Katara to hang behind with Jao Ra. It's probably for the best, she figures, because she felt sick to her stomach watching. The injured soldiers explain through gritted teeth that the earthbenders were far stronger than they'd anticipated.

"They're… crazy," moans a nonbending soldier. He shouts as the physician wraps his broken leg, and then relaxes his grip on the cot he's lying on. "I don't know… why… we're fighting…"

Another soldier beside him gives him a hard glare. "We're fighting because the Earth King didn't see reason to surrender to us. He knew this was coming. He can't hold on forever! And don't ever ask why we're fighting. It's disrespectful to our nation."

Katara watches from the sidelines with Jao Ra beside her. Jao Ra shifts and looks outside the tent. She follows his look. It's dark—night is falling, but the noises of the siege are still reaching the tent.

"They're still fighting," says Katara. "How long will this take?"

"At the rate these earthbenders are going…" Jao Ra shakes his head. "It could be months."

Months. It could be months. It could be months when any day could bring victory or loss for either side. It could be months during which Lu Ten would be fighting against powerful earthbenders at the risk of being injured like the soldiers she'd seen today, or worse. Months during which General Iroh's focus would be solely on the siege, in order to take Ba Sing Se for his nation, to secure his honor.

* * *

True to Jao Ra's words, months _do_ pass. Katara turns ten, and Lu Ten does not win the siege for her. It's still going on, and despite the injuries that occurring to the Fire Nation soldiers, they spend only a day inside the healing tent before rushing back to fight.

Some of the soldiers Katara sees she likes. Some of them are nice to her before they fall into a stupor of unconsciousness, and when the physicians aren't looking, she takes some water and tries to practice her healing. She's still not very good, but as weeks go by, Katara finds that the process gets easier. Of course, the soldiers wake and they feel marginally better, but they aren't up to par.

But it's still better than having not been healed a little bit at all. Katara feels an odd feeling in her chest as she heals them while they're unconscious. It's something akin to fondness.

The seventh month of the siege comes and goes. Lu Ten has not come back. The whispers from the physicians and the soldiers give her some sort of relief about his condition. He's fighting, the strongest one out of all of them, and he's the one who keeps the other soldiers motivated. The other whispers around camp tell her that the Outer Wall is close to being breached. The constant drilling and digging by nonbending soldiers and the slow reign of fire on the wall is causing it to crumble and fall. Jao Ra is often the one who rushes to the outskirts of the fighting to inspect the progress. When he comes back, injured soldiers and physicians listen eagerly to his words as he explains the newest developments.

One day finds Jao Ra inviting Katara to come with him.

"You need to see this," says Jao Ra as he leads her through the bushes. "It's incredible. I haven't told anyone yet. But just think! Soon we'll be on our way back to the Fire Nation with victory."

Katara stares at the sight before her when they stop. There is fire everywhere. The ground has been pulled apart by earthbenders. Nonbenders are covered in blood.

"What…" Katara's hands shake, but she can't cover her eyes. "This is… they're _dead," _she whispers, eyes wide at the sight of bodies far ahead. "They're dead. Jao Ra, they're _dead!"_

"Yeah," says Jao Ra. "They sure are. Look. The wall will be breached in minutes. I guarantee it."

"They're _dead," _she spits, turning her eyes on him, pointing viciously. "Look! They're—all—_dead!"_

"That's the price of war, Katara," says Jao Ra. He sounds like he's speaking to a child, even though he's barely old enough to warrant explaining this stuff himself. Katara is horribly reminded of her age.

"THEY'RE DEAD," she screams. Images flash through her mind: her mother lying in front of her in her igloo, her father speared by fire, Sokka burned to his bones, Lu Ten roasted over a pit in an Earth Kingdom feast—

"Katara!" Hands clamp on her shoulders and she screws her eyes shut. "They're dead! I get it. I get that it's terrible. But it's what has to happen!"

"I hate this war," she cries. "I hate this war. I just want to go home."

There is a crack a ways down from them. Then a deep rumble trembles through the ground. Katara opens her eyes and sees Jao Ra before her, his head turned toward the commotion.

"There," he breathes.

She shifts her eyes and stares though the smoke and bodies.

The wall is moving. Chunks of it buckle under pressure, and soon, a cascade of rock is tumbling to the ground. As the wall falls, Katara sees Earth Kingdom soldiers and earthbenders stare up at the debris falling straight onto them, and in seconds, there is a tight silence.

She realizes the Earth Kingdom soldiers and earthbenders were crushed under the debris. A second later, a distant cheer reaches her ears. Fire Nation soldiers at the scene of the battle are celebrating.

"It's done," says Jao Ra. "Soon we'll conquer the inner part of the city, and we'll be marching back to the Fire Nation, victorious. Let's go back and tell the others."

Katara turns away from the sight, numb. She follows Jao Ra back to camp in a daze, not thinking of anything in particular; if she thinks of anything, she might buckle over and lose whatever food she ate earlier.

When they reach camp, Jao Ra coils his hands around his mouth and yells, "The Outer Wall has fallen!"

Katara doubts Jao Ra notices her leave. He's too fixed on explaining the event to the rest of the camp.

* * *

One round of soldiers brings back Rei. While the Outer Wall is breached, the soldiers come back with injuries more devastating than before.

"Rei!" says Katara in surprise, rushing over to him. "You're—you're hurt! Why are you—?"

"They enlisted me about two months ago," says Rei bitterly, through a bout of pain. "They're… running out of soldiers up there. It's been almost a year, Katara." He looks at her, and she returns it.

He looks different. Dead inside. Katara doesn't want to ask. She doesn't want him to recount what he's seen to make him look so lifeless.

"You look good," he says quietly while watching her. "You look healthy." His voice is lifeless, too. Katara wishes there were something else. Like envy. She wishes she could hear envy.

"Like you said," she tells him, "it's been almost a year." Since that day the wall was breached—the day she'd seen the Earth Kingdom soldiers crushed by the debris—she gave up on hiding her healing skills from the physicians. She pulls some water from nearby jugs and begins to work on Rei's injuries. He's got a few broken ribs. She's gotten good enough to tell, but she's still not good enough to heal them completely. But she knocks them back into place and gets rid of the bruises.

His right hand is almost mutilated. She doesn't know if she can heal that.

"How bad is it?" he asks her.

"It's alright," she says. "I… I can work on it." She lets the water transform into an incandescent blue around his own hand.

While the old Rei might have _tch_ed and pulled his hand away, this one simply sighs and says, "Okay."

"Rei!"

There's commotion at the front of the tent, where physicians are tending to injured firebenders—the group Rei came back with—and Jao Ra rushes toward them. His eyes linger on Rei's hand, but he doesn't say anything other than, "I'm glad you're here."

Rei says nothing. Katara lets the water back into the jug next to her and notes that his hand looks a little better, but is still horrifyingly torn apart. She takes some cloth and wraps it around his palm and fingers.

"General Iroh told the rest of the forces to come from the ships to camp," Jao Ra continues. He rubs a hand behind his neck. "I guess we'll have the rest of our team back from the ship. Back to servant duty."

"For you two, maybe," says Rei. "I have to go back." He starts to sit up.

"_No," _says Katara. "You can't go back there."

"Leave me alone, Katara," Rei says, pulling his hand away from her. He hisses in pain a second later before clutching his hand to his chest. The blood seeps through the cloth she wrapped around it earlier.

"Rei—"

He gets up, casts a withering glare at her and Jao Ra, and limps away to the physicians and the other injured firebenders.

"Katara," says Jao Ra, "how did his hand get like that?"

"I don't know," she says. "He didn't tell me, and I didn't get to ask." She doesn't _want_ to ask. "I hope he's careful."

"He'll be fine," says Jao Ra. "We'll be done soon. I know it."

Katara hopes Jao Ra is right, because he seems to be the only one with any ounce of confidence. The soldiers trudge into the physicians' tent day after day with morale that seemed to sink the entire camp into the ground. News from the battle in the Agragrian zone of Ba Sing Se holds nothing new other than more injuries and more deaths from both sides.

She hasn't seen Lu Ten in nearly a year. General Iroh, either. She looks down at her hands. They are a little thinner, a little more calloused. Her tenth birthday has come and gone… and Lu Ten has yet to give her her gift. Her eleventh birthday is coming.

Her hands squeeze together and she sends a prayer to La for his promise to come true. When she does, she sits quietly for a moment, and then she shuts her eyes and she sends another prayer, this time to Agni. Because it can't hurt. And, perhaps, Agni is more able to protect Lu Ten.

* * *

Her eleventh birthday comes and goes. To her relief, no news arrives about danger to Lu Ten. News does arrive, however, about the general protecting the Agrarian Zone of Ba Sing Se bringing in reinforcement earthbenders to ensure the survival of the city, rather than have the city collapse like the general protecting the Outer Wall allowed.

One of the adult physicians brings her to the side one day and gives her a letter. "Deliver this to General Iroh," says the physician tiredly, her eyes moving every which way, inspecting every soldier in the tent. "And deliver it _quickly,_ child. Do not read it. This is for the general's eyes only."

"Why me?" asks Katara, though she takes the sealed letter anyway. "Shouldn't you get someone stronger?"

"The Earth Kingdom won't touch children," says the physician. "And you are small. Go, quickly."

Katara rushes away, ignoring Jao Ra, who is sitting guard in front of the physicians' tent. She ignores the soldiers who are marching toward the battle, instead running in front of them to go to the site she remembers Jao Ra taking her to so many months ago, where the Outer Wall was torn down.

When she gets there perhaps a half hour later, she's relieved to see no bodies on the ground, no smoke, no fire, no blood. There is a tent in the distance, heavily guarded, sitting in front of the debris from the Outer Wall. She hurries toward it without a second thought to the blasts in the background.

The guards see her coming in the dusk and fog, but they do not immediately recognize her. "Stand down, child!" they order her. "Don't make us attack."

"I have a letter for General Iroh," she pants, holding it towards them. "My name is Katara. I am a healer with the physicians back at camp. This letter is important."

"It's the waterbender," says one of the guards. "Take her message. Keep her out here and bind her hands."

"Wh—" She backs away, quickly drawing the letter back toward her. "Don't touch me!"

"We need to make sure you don't run off to the Earth King," says the guard. "And we need to make sure the letter is harmless."

"It _is _harmless!"

"Bind her hands," says the same guard. Another grabs her roughly and ropes her wrists together, taking the letter from her. He shakes it by his ear for a second before nodding at the first guard.

"Take it to the general. I'll watch the waterbender."

"Untie me," she snarls at the guard. "I've done nothing wrong. I could have escaped a while ago."

He harrumphs and crosses his hands over his chest. Katara breathes heavily through her nose but says nothing more, waiting for the other guard to come out of General Iroh's tent. For a moment—she listens closely, trying to pick up on what's happening, but the blasts in the distance are making it difficult—she thinks she can hear his voice.

Then there is more quiet. And _then, _the guard reemerges. "Lingyuan, the general wants to see the waterbender."

The first guard uncrosses his arms and undoes the ropes around Katara's wrists. "Now was that so hard, child?"

"My name is Katara," she tells him harshly before she rushes inside the tent. The guards behind her snicker.

When her eyes adjust to the candlelight, she sees General Iroh behind a desk with two more guards stationed in the back two corners of his tent. He's staring at the letter with a frown.

"You called for me, General Iroh?" she says, remembering her decorum.

His eyes look up over the paper toward her.

"Katara," he says, and for a second, she's nine again, and he's just taken her out of prison. "You've grown, my dear. Please, come closer."

She does. Her feet bring her a couple inches closer to his desk.

"_Katara," _he repeats, "please, do not be afraid of me."

Her hands clench at her sides. Tension runs through her arms. Her feet are restless. She can't just stand there, and before she knows it, she leaps at him and wraps her arms around him as much as she can, albeit the awkward position she's in as he continues sitting in his chair.

"Make it stop," she says to him. "Please make it stop."

"I'm sorry, Katara. I can't." He pulls away from her gently. "I thought you would have left this place. I thought you would have left."

"Once or twice I thought about it," she says. "But then I wouldn't know where to go." She leaves him and Lu Ten out of her explanation.

General Iroh turns back to the letter on his desk. "This is bad," he says to himself. "We have no more reinforcements and the physicians are running out of supplies. This siege was not supposed to take so long."

No more supplies?

"I…" Katara swallows, unsure of what to say. "General Iroh…" And then it comes to her. But wouldn't he be mad?

"I'm a healer," she says, steeling herself. "I can try to help."

The general's head shoots up. "What?"

"I can heal people," she says. "I… I've been doing it a little bit, but I'm not very good. I think with practice, I can get better. That is, if you let me."

General Iroh leans back in his chair. "You have been waterbending in my absence."

"I'm sorry—"

"No, Katara, don't be sorry," he tells her. "It has been too long for me to expect you to abide by my rules. It was not reasonable for me to think a year could go by, and you would not bend. I am thankful you told me."

"So will you let me help, then?"

"No," says General Iroh.

"What? Why not?"

"Because you are still young. And I don't want you to relegate yourself to dealing with war. You deserve more than blood and bruises."

"Please," she begs him. "I need to help."

"I will not change my mind," says General Iroh. "This is my final decision, Katara. Now, please, go back to camp. Thank you for delivering this letter and thank you for telling me what you have been doing."

She bites back a retort and leaves his tent. The guards outside eye her carefully.

"I'm going back to camp," she says. "If you want to tie me up and walk me back, fine. But I'm not leaving this place, so you don't have to."

The guard who untied her earlier wraps a rope around her wrists again. "We can't take chances," he says. "I'll take you back."

"Be careful, Lingyuan," says the other guard. "It's getting dark."

It takes twice as long for Katara to get back to camp than it did for her to get to General Iroh's tent at the Outer Wall. She isn't running through the woods this time, and the guard with her is overly cautious. When they do reach camp, Katara finds the physicians swamped with more injured soldiers.

"Water," they croak, reaching toward the jugs. The physicians rush to give them what they ask for, but they're running low on clean water now, and it's clear that within a few months, they will have nothing to give the injured soldiers at all.

Jao Ra finds her and pulls her aside. "We have no supplies here," he says to her. "And no one's willing to go get more."

"We _can't_ get more," says Katara. "There's no place around her that would give anything to us."

"To the Fire Nation, maybe," he says. "But to _you_, they might."

"That's ridiculous," she says, glowering. "I can't go over and get them. The Inner City is so well guarded I might as well be pounding at metal."

"You can do it," he says encouragingly. "You're the only one who can. You can sneak in there—acting like a homeless kid or something—and you can bring some supplies out."

"Let's say I _do _get in," she says. "Then how would I get out without being seen?"

Jao Ra falters. "I didn't think that far."

"Come back when you do," says Katara. "But thanks for the effort, Jao Ra. Really. I just don't think it's plausible. The general said they _know_ the last waterbender of the Southern Tribe, and they _know_ that the Fire Nation has me. If they see me and recognize me, it's over." _And I'll never get to see or talk to my family if that happens._

"Okay," he says. "I'll… I'll try to think of something."

She lets him leave and tries not to look at his slumped shoulders. She does, anyway. They remind her of someone.

When she goes to bed that night, she realizes they remind her of Prince Zuko. For some reason, it bothers her that she thinks of him at all.

* * *

She's eleven and a half when it happens.

"GO," screams Jao Ra, shoving cloth in her hands and pushing her out of the tent. "RUN!"

"What's going—"

"JUST GO!"

She runs as fast as she can, feeling the earth tear apart behind her. She uses the cloth Jao Ra gave to her to cover her mouth and nose from the smoke. The screams of soldiers from the tent fill her ears as she goes as quickly as she can. Jao Ra is panting heavily at her side as he runs, coughing as he inhales smoke from the fire around them.

"What's—happening—?" she heaves, but the smoke fills her lungs, and she shoves the cloth back to her face again. They run for what seems like hours before the earth stops rumbling, and she collapses by a tree. The cloth is dry and black now, but at least it's covering her mouth and nose, and she keeps it there as she tries to repeat her question. "Wh—"

"The Earth Kingdom sent reinforcements to find our camp," he bites out. He keels over beside her and she hears him retch violently onto the ground. His pale face is black, now, filled with ash and leaves. A moment passes by and he continues, voice hoarse, "They were probably sent to destroy our supplies and to get rid of us."

He looks back behind them. Katara watches his eyes go wide. "Agni above," he whispers. "It's all gone."

She whips around. "No," she says, backing up against the tree. "No—they're not—they can't be."

"I don't know who's alive," says Jao Ra, leaning his palms on his knees. He breathes in again and hacks suddenly onto the ground. "That—that can't be good."

She looks at him as he stares at the ground. There is a dark spot on the grass. Blood.

"Did you just cough that up?" she says.

He turns his face toward her. His lips are stained dark red. "I think so," he says quietly. "My chest hurts."

There's no sign of anything on his torso. He's uninjured, from what she can see, and she hates that she can't tell why he's bleeding.

He coughs again into his hand. His palm comes back scarlet. "Katara," he begins, "I think I'm sick."

"No," she says roughly. "No, you're not. You can't be."

"Too much…" He tries taking in some air. "Too much smoke."

Suddenly, Katara understands. But then she notices he doesn't have a cloth. His voice is scratchy. He ran with her with no cloth. He _gave _her his cloth in the beginning. "_No,_" she says. "Please, you can't. Please."

He retches again, and this time, the color of it is red.

"Go," he says to her. "Go find General Iroh. You're… the only one who can do it."

She shakes her head from side to side, clutching onto his arm as he sinks to the ground. "You're coming with me," she says to him, trying to lift him up. But she's weak, too, and her arms fail her.

"You have to _go,_"he whispers. "Please. Find General Iroh. And… and try to find Rei. He should… he should be there."

He gives her a smile. For a moment, Katara thinks she sees Sokka, the day Jao Ra first showed her the Outer Wall crumbling before her eyes. She thinks she sees her brother fall to his knees and heave blood from his mouth.

"Good luck, Katara," he murmurs.

"You, too," she says, hugging him tightly. And then she lifts herself off the ground, trying not to look at his weak figure, and she runs toward the light and fire of Ba Sing Se.

* * *

"Hey," says Lingyuan. "You're the waterbender."

"You stayed," says the other guard, bewildered.

"The camp," she says, falling to the ground. "The camp is… it's… earthbenders… gone…"

Lingyuan and the other guard look at each other. "Say that again," says Lingyuan. "And say it better."

"The camp is gone," she pants. "Earthbenders came… it's destroyed. I don't know if… if anyone else… everything's gone…"

The second guard rushes into the tent.

"You did well, waterbender," says Lingyuan. She looks at him in surprise, and he says, "And you look awful. Stay out here and wait for the general." He casts her a funny look before he follows the other guard into the tent.

She sits, trying to gather her bearings. Soon, there is commotion from inside General Iroh's tent. Before she knows it, she's being pulled up by her hands and steadied.

"Get her water," comes the general's voice from in front of her. She struggles to focus her eyes on him.

"Yes, sir," says a soldier, who immediately brings her some. She downs it greedily, feeling some of it dribble down her chin and onto her shirt and hands.

"Have some soldiers go back to the camp," says General Iroh. "Salvage as much as you can." The next part of it comes out roughly. "Search for survivors. And be wary of earthbenders. They may be there, looking for supplies, as well."

"Yes, sir," repeats the same soldier before hurrying off.

"How did you get away, Katara?" says General Iroh gently.

"My tent was at the edge of camp," she says hoarsely, trying to get past her double vision. "My f-friend—Jao—Jao Ra—he woke me—he saved my life—"

"Where is your friend now?"

"Gone," she chokes out. "He made it away from the earthbenders with me, but there was too much smoke from the firebenders fighting back, and he—he—" She inhales shakily, clutching her shirt with white knuckles. "I had t-to leave him behind—"

The general's eyes soften. "Go inside, my dear," he tells her. "And sleep. You need rest." The moon overhead only proves his point. It is still the middle of the night.

* * *

When she wakes, she sees General Iroh writing on a parchment with a messenger hawk beside him. He has a doll and what looks like a dagger sitting on the edge of his desk, beside his ink. He finishes moments later and ties his parchment into a scroll onto the messenger hawk's leg and straps the other two objects onto the hawk's back. The hawk caws at him and flies through the tent flap, away to wherever it was the general sent it to.

"General?" she begins, sitting up.

He looks over to her. For the first time, she notices how old he looks. He seemed to have gain more wrinkles than ever in the last year. "Good morning, Katara," he says. "How are you feeling?"

"A little better," she admits. "But still weak."

"That will heal with time," he tells her. "I've just sent gifts to my niece and nephew. Hopefully they will be more energized by what Ba Sing Se offers me than I am myself."

She assumes the doll was meant for the princess, and that the dagger was meant for Prince Zuko. The only thing she can remember about the two of them is that the princess is far better at firebending than the prince. "That's nice," she says. "I bet they'll like their gifts."

"I hope so," says General Iroh. He places his quill down on his desk and stands. "If you excuse me, Katara, I have to go see how the battle is faring."

She nods and watches him exit his tent. The guards standing in the far two corners of the room don't look at her.

Katara doesn't know how long she sits there, clutching her knees and thinking about Jao Ra. If she had more time, she could have tried to heal him. If she had more water, she could have tried to heal him. Her stomach turns and her throat clenches. He could have been _alive_.

It's only when there's a shout and a crash when Katara's head shoots up from her position. "_General Iroh!" _someone shrieks, and she's on her feet, running out of the tent.

He's sitting on the ground a couple dozen yards away from her, his face in his hands. There's someone lying on the ground beside him.

It's been a year and a half. Over a year and a half. It can't be. Not today. Not after everything that's already happened.

Her legs carry her toward General Iroh, anyway, as fast as they possibly can. And it _is. _It _is _Lu Ten. His eyes are wide, his hands are twitching by his sides, and there is a large, jagged rock in emerging from the left side of his chest.

"My son," says Iroh, his hands at his eyes. "My son."

Lu Ten's lips move. He whispers something Katara can't hear. The guards move away as they mimic Iroh's actions. Everyone is in shock. With them moving away, she walks closer, falling to her knees beside Lu Ten.

His head moves toward her slowly, painfully. "—'tara," he breathes, barely audible. "'s that… you?"

"Yes," she says. The tears aren't coming. She just feels numb. "It's me."

He inhales and exhales, his breath gurgling. "You're… old… er…"

"Yes," she repeats.

"E-eleven," he murmurs.

She nods this time.

He stares at her blearily. Then, ever so slightly, one corner of his mouth tilts upward. "Wish… could've—could've gotten y-you… better gift…"

Something inside her snaps.

"Water," she shrieks. "Water!"

Someone gives her a jar and she pulls the water out over his chest. She doesn't know how to do this. Should she take the rock out? Should she leave it in? If only she was _better_—

"—care—take care o-of—Z-Zuko—Azu—" He breathes in again and the air around him seems to shudder.

"_Stop,"_ she cries. "Stay awake!"

"My _son,_" comes a prayer from in front of her. "Please, Agni, please take care of my son."

"—did well," says Lu Ten, his eyes unfocused. "Can't even—f-feel it…"

"_Lu Ten," _she screams.

His mouth forms another word. Something that looks suspiciously like "father". Under her fluorescent blue-colored hands, his chest hikes and freezes, and Katara feels the numbness wash away, leaving her nothing but ugly tears.

They take him and drape a white silk cloth over his body when the blood dries. That way, none of it can soak through and show the horrors beneath. The general says nothing. Katara doesn't stay with him. Instead, she sits at the edge of the debris of the Outer Wall, thinking perhaps prison might have been better than a world where her prayers to both La and Agni were both heard and ignored.

* * *

**I… didn't mean for it to get so gruesome and depressing… but something had to be done about it, I guess. The reason why these first few chapters are pretty long is because this is all exposition. I'm trying to set it all up. :)**

**I hope you enjoyed it. Somewhat, anyway. Please leave a review and stay tuned!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer: **I don't own ATLA, and I never will. (Which is probably a good thing.)

**Notes: **Thank you guys for the warm reception of Chapter 3! Keep it up!

* * *

**Chapter 4**

Vaguely, Katara notices the small changes over the course of the few days that pass after Lu Ten's death. At first, it's the soldiers. They were already losing focus and becoming more pessimistic, but a few hours after Lu Ten's passing, reports begin to come in about more and more soldiers being killed. She isn't sure what's doing it. Perhaps the Earth Kingdom gained a new influx of earthbenders?

The fifth day that passes is when she sees a mass of Fire Nation soldiers appearing over the horizon, beyond the torn down wall.

She doesn't move as she watches them. Another person appears in her mind, and she hopes—she hopes _hard_—that he's still there. The soldiers trudge past her with grime on their faces and their mouths sealed tight in loss.

"Katara," says a voice, and through the crowd of soldiers she sees Rei. With only one arm.

"La," she breathes, swaying in relief. "Rei. You're alive."

There are black circles under his eyes, and his already tan skin is covered in soot and mud. "It was hard," he mumbles. "When we got news of the prince… we all just gave up. There was no use when the strongest of us had been… you know."

"Your arm," she says instead, trying not to focus on Lu Ten. "What happened, Rei?"

"My hand got infected and I noticed it too late," says Rei. He shifts around a little awkwardly, as though trying to hide it. "I had to get rid of the whole arm."

Katara's mouth opens but then she remembers his mutilated hand from so long ago. "I—I should have—I _could_ have healed that," she says, feeling shame close in on her. But then she thinks harder. She could have healed that _now,_ perhaps. But not then.

"It's not a big deal," says Rei. "I've gotta go, Katara." He pauses, then nods at her. "I'll see you back on the ships. Maybe when we get back to the Fire Nation, things will be better."

"Wait," says Katara. Rei's words from earlier have caught up with her, and the image of the soldiers returning from the Agrarian Zone flashes through her head. They're all gone now, walking away from the Outer Wall and toward the woods. "We're… leaving?"

"General Iroh is retreating," says Rei. He turns without another word and walks away, leaning slightly to the left from the lack of balance.

Katara turns to the city of Ba Sing Se. Beyond the debris of the Outer Wall, she can see smoke rising from the farms. Behind her, the last of the soldiers are slumping toward the direction of the camp—of where the camp used to be. They are heading back to the ships.

She can leave, if she wants to. Lu Ten is gone, and so is Jao Ra, and… she can't go back to the Fire Nation. She'll be sent immediately to the dungeons. She can stay in Ba Sing Se, maybe find her family… she can ask for leads. General Iroh said before that the Earth Kingdom knows the last waterbender of the Southern Water Tribe was taken by the Fire Nation. They can help her.

She thinks of Sokka, and her father, and her mother—her _mother_—and her feet start in the direction of the light.

"Katara?"

Her feet stop. Mud seeps through her boots and cakes around her toes as she sinks into the ground with anticipation.

"If you want to leave," says General Iroh behind her, "you can. I won't stop you."

There is a pregnant silence. Katara stares at the city, willing her feet to move. They don't.

"I will be returning to the Fire Nation," he continues sadly. "Although… I suspect I won't be very highly regarded. I…" He trails off, and try as she might, Katara can't help turning to face him. "I need to see my nephew and my niece."

She swallows.

"Perhaps I will see you in the future, my dear," he tells her. He looks old, and sad, and short, and pathetic, nothing like the tall young face of Prince Ozai. "I wish you a good journey."

He turns and walks away. The guards alongside him, both of whom Katara has just noticed, dutifully spin on their feet and follow the general. One turns his head back over his shoulder to look at her. It's Lingyuan, with his small beady eyes and his beak for a nose, and he looks like a disapproving tutor Katara thinks she might've had in a different life. But then he turns back to face the direction he's walking in, and Katara looks toward Ba Sing Se again.

She _can't_ go back to the Fire Nation. Can she?

She closes her eyes and runs.

* * *

"Here." A mug is placed in front of her, steaming. There are adults bustling around her with trays and hot tea, saying nothing, only offering consoling glances. Katara wraps her hands around her mug and brings it up to her lips for a sip, letting her eyes wander around the room she's in. It's dim and grey and most of all, it smells like loss. Her eyes catch onto a bandaged figure coming to stand in front of her.

His one arm is holding a mug as he tries to lower himself to the floor using only his legs. Katara takes his mug from him and lets him use his arm to steady himself as he sits.

"Thanks," says Rei quietly, taking his mug from her once he's settled. He takes a slow sip and looks around him, much as Katara did seconds earlier. The room is crowded with soldiers and servants and physicians, all of whom are nursing grim looks on their haggard faces.

Katara only holds her mug and stares at the place where Rei's arm used to be. Instead, there's a massive bandage across his frail torso and around his right shoulder. She bites her lip and says meekly, "Rei?"

He _mmm_s into his mug.

"How did…" The words are hard. "How did you get…"

"—asking about my hand?" He places his mug down and purses his lips. "An earthbender trapped my hands in rock… there were big balls of rock around each of my hands so I couldn't firebend. I used my hand to overheat the rock until it exploded… it did a number on my hand, I guess. I'm not trained enough to use that much power and to keep it from hurting myself. This one?" He holds up his left hand. "I just smashed it against a wall. It did the trick. Why I didn't do that with my right hand, I don't know."

"Can you still bend?"

"Yeah. It's harder, though. But I'm glad I got out with nothing worse." Rei goes silent and picks up his mug again. He doesn't take a sip, though, and instead looks around him. "I have a question."

Oh no. She can feel trouble bubbling in her stomach. The tea in her mug trembles in her anticipation.

"Where's Jao Ra?"

She immediately diverts her eyes and stares at her mug. The tea ripples anxiously.

"Katara…"

"He got sick," she says. "Too much smoke."

Rei makes a noise and rubs his eyes. "Dammit," he mutters. "What was he doing running around like that?" Something catches in his voice and he keeps his hand at his face. "S-smoke. You weren't supposed to go like that. Not like that."

He lowers his hand and Katara sees his eyes are red and bleary. "Did I ever tell you how Jao Ra and I met?"

She shakes her head and brings her knees to her chest. Their conversation is one of the only ones happening in the room. The others in the room don't say much at all, with the exception of a handful of other quiet conversations.

"I was six," says Rei. A muscle in his jaw moves almost imperceptibly. "Almost ten years ago, before I was sent to be a servant at the palace. I was getting medicine for my father since we lived in the slums, and a lot of people get sick easily there when it comes around. Medicine was expensive, but my mom and I saved everything we could find on the streets to buy it for my dad." He breathes out shakily and raises his mud brown eyes to hers. "I ran into Jao Ra at the infirmary, where the medicine was being handed out, except Jao Ra was sick and he couldn't afford the medicine, either. He looked awful. I…"

"You bought the medicine and gave it to him," says Katara, understanding.

He nods.

"Why?"

"My dad was already too far gone," says Rei, shaking his head. "All the stronger rounds of medicine were already out, taken by the richer families. The smaller vials weren't enough for him, and I knew that, even though I was so young. So… I… bought as much as I could, and I had it administered to Jao Ra, who was sick, but… he wasn't _as_ sick, and he… well, he never really let me out of his sight after that."

She says silent and lets him try to steady his shaking hand. "He was only a few months younger than me, and… when I got home, with him following me around, my mother saw that I hadn't brought back the medicine. She got mad, as I thought she would be. But she… well, she understood that I followed my gut—at that age, a gut instinct is hard _not_ to follow—and gave the medicine to Jao Ra, since there wasn't enough for my father. In order to spare me the pain of seeing my father pass away, she sent me to the palace as a servant. I used to go visit her every once in a while. She's a teacher now."

"I'm sorry about your dad," says Katara, unsure of what else to say.

He shrugs. "It would've happened had I saved the medicine, anyway. But Jao Ra... he wasn't supposed to..." Rei inhales shakily, before he looks at her again and furrows his brows slightly. "What are you going to do when we get back to the Fire Nation?"

She stiffens. "I don't know. I hope I can stay in the palace, but…" Rei looks confused, so she adds, "I'll just hang around and help out."

"Why wouldn't you be able to stay with us?" says Rei, still frowning.

"Well—I'm a waterbender," says Katara. "There's no _use_ for me. I was only brought out of the dungeons for Ba Sing Se, and…"

Rei holds up his hand. "I get it."

Thankful that she doesn't have to elaborate, Katara finishes her tea in silence. The rest of the room sits in a sullen, dark gloom that hangs over all of them like the low ceiling above, and the sway of the ship only serves to heighten her nausea rather than ease it. Occasionally, she feels the other soldiers cast her looks of distrust and anger. Eventually it becomes overwhelming. She stands and tells Rei, "I think I'll go back to my bunk."

"I'll come with you," he says.

"No," she says. "You can stay here. You… you should rest."

Rei opens his mouth to argue, but she turns on her heel and walks away through the crowd of soldiers sitting on the floor. When she's out of the room and in the dark red hallway of the ship, she breathes a sigh of relief, lingering for a moment to gather herself from the horrible looks from the soldiers.

They hate her. They hate her because they think the general went soft _because_ of her. They hate her because the general didn't win the siege, like he was supposed to, and instead retreated because he went soft and gooey and mushy and everything a general wasn't supposed to do.

Lu Ten flashes through her mind, and Katara holds back a strangled noise. Lu Ten is supposed to be alive. He _promised_ her that. But instead, Katara thinks of the year and a half spent in the camp, praying to La and Agni for his return, and for what? She can't send that message to her family now.

She walks sullenly back to the servants' quarters.

* * *

The next morning, there is commotion among the servants. Perhaps it has to do with the big crowd at the door of their quarters. Katara looks from under her sheets to see servants gathered at the door, trying to peer out into the hallway.

"There he is," says one of them. "What do you think he wants?"

"Probably the waterbender," someone else says. "Wake her up. Get her dressed. We were incapable enough to lose one battle. We mustn't make a fool of ourselves this time."

Someone scoffs. "The general already made a fool of himself."

"Quiet, imbecile. General Iroh lost his _son._ Surely that warrants—"

"Didn't you hear the rumors from the Fire Nation?" the same servant says. "He's a failure. Everyone hates him. Prince Lu Ten died, and the Dragon of the West along with him. When we get back, all of us will be put to the ropes."

"Shut your mouth and go wake the waterbender! I won't tell you again!"

There's a moment of silence and a thump of angry, frustrated feet. Then, Katara is shaken rudely from outside her sheets, and she pulls them down and levels a glare at the servant who came to wake her.

"Get up, waterbender," spits the servant, unfazed.

"What climbed in your smallclothes this morning?" Katara snaps back, pushing the servant away.

The servant growls at her and turns away. Fuming, Katara stomps toward the door, where the crowd is. "I'm going to take a bath," she says to all the servants in the room.

"We'll clean you up," says one of the adult servants.

"Leave me alone. I don't need your help. I can do it myself."

The younger servants look irritated, muttering about "entitlement". One of them opens her mouth to scold her, but an older servant lays a hand on Katara's shoulder. "The general is looking for you. You should be careful as you come back from your meeting. The soldiers are frustrated and angry. They won't take kindly to you."

Deflating, Katara bows her head. The servants part and let her pass.

* * *

"Hello, general," says Katara softly.

Even from behind, Katara can see the difference in the general's stature. He looks smaller, defeated. He looks as if all the years of being a commander has caught up with him. His hands don't look strong—they look fat and stubby, unfit for fighting. And when he turns after hearing her words, she notices his eyes are sad and his face is gaunt and sallow. He seems to have gained more wrinkles in the past month than in the past two and a half years she's known him.

"When I heard you had stayed with us, I admit, I was surprised," admits the general, smiling at her despite his obvious depression. "I thought you would have wanted to leave."

"I did want to leave," she says meekly.

"And yet you stayed," he adds, albeit questioningly.

She looks down. There are hard words on the tip of her tongue that she has to say. "Lu Ten promised me something."

When she looks up, she sees the general with his eyes wet with tears. "Yes, Lu Ten never wanted to break his promises." He waves a gentle hand toward her. "Come with me, my dear. I will fulfill my son's promise to you."

The messenger hawk looks at her dolefully as she stares at the quill in her hand. She _knows_ how to write—time spent with the servants and doing their errands in the palace has had her educated than most other servants anywhere else—but she doesn't know what to write. For the latter fourth of her young life, she was separated from her mother, her father, and Sokka. She bites her lip and glances and the general from the corner of her eye, who is sitting with a mug of tea in his stubby hands.

He isn't watching her, she notes gratefully. But she still doesn't know what to write, and she says, "General?"

"Please, Katara," he replies. "I suspect I won't be a general for much longer. Please call me Iroh."

"Um—" She can't believe she heard the words actually leave his mouth, but she did. "Okay. Iroh?"

"Yes?"

"I don't know what to write," she says. "Is there… can you… what do I say to them?"

A moment later, Iroh places the mug down and folds his hands together. "Why don't you start off by telling them you miss them? You miss them, right?"

"Yeah."

"So start off with that. Just let your quill talk. I promise the words will come."

Katara turns her eyes back to the parchment in front of her. "Thanks." She tightens her grip on the quill and begins to write.

_Dear mom, dad, and Sokka,_

_I miss you. A lot. More than anything else in the world. I'm safe for now. Maybe you weren't expecting to get this scroll, or maybe you were expecting it a while ago, but I promise I never wanted to leave. I'll just tell you what happened while I was in the Fire Nation._

_For a year, I was in a Fire Nation dungeon. I don't remember that much about it except that it was dark and very warm. I remember Prince Ozai (the Fire Lord's second son) showing his children around the dungeons. He didn't like me much. Neither did his children._

_General Iroh, the first son of the Fire Lord, took me out of the dungeons when I was nine. He told me he wanted me for the siege against Ba Sing Se. I still don't know if he got what he wanted by taking me out of the dungeons. I've been with him since. He's taught me a few waterbending forms, and guess what? I'm a healer! I found that out a little while after we left for Ba Sing Se. My friend Rei twisted his ankle and I accidentally healed it a bit when he soaked it in ice water._

_Now that General Iroh is retreating from Ba Sing Se after over a year and a half, we're heading back to the Fire Nation. I was going to leave and try to find you. But I didn't know how to get back, and General Iroh just lost his son, Prince Lu Ten, in the siege. And I know I'm supposed to hate him and Prince Lu Ten, but they took me out of the dungeons and gave me a chance to learn waterbending. Actually, Lu Ten was the one who promised me the opportunity to write to you. But… he passed away, and now General Iroh (now he wants me to call him Iroh) is letting me write to you instead. _

_We're going back to the Fire Nation. I hope I can come home someday, and I hope I'm not sent back to the dungeons. For now, this scroll is just to let you know that I'm safe, and that things have gotten a little better for me since I was taken. (Sokka, I miss you. But don't worry. I had a good brother for a little while. Lu Ten was nice to me, and so were my friends Jao Ra and Rei. _

_I hope I see you again. I don't know if you can send a reply, but you can try. I love you._

_Katara_

She puts the quill down and looks at her writing. It's a little bit scraggly—she hasn't written for a while—but it looks legible, and she blows over it to dry the ink. A moment later, she rolls up the scroll and holds it for the messenger hawk, who bends down and lets her slip the scroll into the container strapped onto its back.

"I'm done," she says to Iroh.

"Ah, good," says Iroh, standing and putting his arm out in front of the hawk. The hawk hops onto it obediently, looking at him. "Who would you like to send this to?"

She's about to say "Chief Hakoda of the Southern Water Tribe" but the words don't come out. As much as she likes Iroh, she can't give that information to the Fire Nation. Instead, she says, "Sokka of the Southern Water Tribe." No one knows Sokka.

"Deliver this to Sokka of the Southern Water Tribe," says Iroh to the hawk. "And if Sokka of the Southern Water Tribe wants to reply, please allow it."

The hawk keens at him and lifts from Iroh's forearm before flapping its wings off through the room and out the open window. Katara watches the hawk disappear into the fog over the sea.

"Thanks," she says quietly.

Iroh gives her a nice, uncle-y smile. That's about the only way she can describe it. "It was my pleasure." But she can still see the underlying tense sorrow. She doesn't know how, but she can.

She frowns as she leaves. She's relieved—the fulfillment of what Lu Ten had promised her helped her a lot—but she misses Lu Ten, and she misses Jao Ra. She misses Sokka and all of them, every single one of them. _La,_ she even misses Rei's arm.

* * *

"Home sweet home," says Rei, stepping off the ship. The sun feels almost unnatural to Katara, but Rei looks happy, so she doesn't say anything. "This feels great."

"Yeah," says Katara. She peers up at the sky with raised eyebrows. "At least something's the same."

The farther down the path the soldiers and servants walk, the more Katara notices the crowd gathering to watch them. No one says anything. Some people glare. Others just watch blankly.

One young child in the crowd pulls her mother's robe. "_Mother,"_ says the child loudly, "is that _General Iroh?"_

Around her, the soldiers and servants draw in quick breaths. The world seems to have stopped spinning.

"No," says the mother coldly. "That is no general."

No one says anything else as the soldiers trudge away from the ship and into the capital city. When Katara looks at Rei, she seems his jaw clenched with anger. Ahead of her, soldiers straighten their backs to appear more powerful. All around her people are raising their heads up high. Iroh may have failed according to those who weren't there, but to those who lived the ordeal, like the soldiers and servants with whom Katara is walking, Iroh did all he could. Katara unconsciously raises her chin, too.

When the soldiers are led to their own quarters, the servants are taken to their wing in the palace. She follows them until she sees Prince Ozai waiting at the palace doors. It has been a long time, but he seems even more intimidating now that she's back and Ba Sing Se has passed.

Prince Ozai's head turns. His eyes lock onto hers as she passes.

He smiles.

She smiles back.

* * *

"Waterbender. Wake up."

Her eyes open slowly and squint against the bright light in the servants' quarters. A physician is standing above her, waiting calmly for her to adjust to her surroundings. Katara sits up and swings her legs over the side of her bed after a second, rubbing at her eyes. "Yes, sir."

"Drink this," says the physician. He hands her a glass of water. She takes it and begins to drink, when he continues, "The Fire Lord has required your presence."

She promptly spits the water out of her mouth. The physician wipes his face calmly and repeats himself.

"_What?" _she says. "That has to be a mistake."

"Prince Ozai has demanded your return to the dungeons," says the physician. He looks a little sorry. That's when Katara realizes he was one of the physicians who came with them to Ba Sing Se, and one of the lucky ones to be found alive in the camp after it had been destroyed by earthbenders. He _knows_ her, she thinks. "And General Iroh—former General Iroh—is asking to keep you out of the dungeons. The Fire Lord would like to see you to make his decision."

Katara coughs the last of the water in her throat away. "_Former_ General Iroh?"

"He has resigned his commission."

She stares at the physician in shock.

"Please hasten, waterbender," says the physician, taking her cup from her.

When the physician leaves, she gets dressed in silence. She doesn't have anything else to wear except her Fire Nation servant garb, and she tries to tame her hair as much as possible with her fingers. Digging a hand through her pockets, she's relieved to feel the Pai Sho tile there. Somehow, it remained there through any washes the clothes might have gone through. She puts on her boots—the seams are coming apart at the soles—and stares at herself in the mirror.

Her face has started to lose some of its chub. She still has a lot of it, but her nose is longer, her eyes more narrow. She's getting older.

Katara grips the Pai Sho tile in her pocket until she feels her knuckles go numb, and she marches out of the servants' quarters to face the Fire Lord.

* * *

"The waterbender is here, my lord."

"Send her in," comes the wispy voice of the Fire Lord. Katara shivers.

A second later, a guard appears in front of the curtains. "Listen up," he tells her gruffly. "Don't look the Fire Lord in the eyes. Bow immediately. Always address him with the appropriate title. Be concise and on point. And most of all, don't—do—anything—stupid." The last few words are said with several respective pokes to her shoulder. He turns on his heel and pushes the curtains apart.

She follows him rather ungracefully, but as the curtains fall together behind her, she realizes the room is uncomfortably hot. There is fire lining the front of the grand room, placing a daunting silhouette on the etching-filled wall behind the throne. On the side—Katara swallows as she sees them—Prince Ozai and Iroh are standing, watching her pass. Iroh looks reassuring. Ozai, however, looks absolutely furious.

When the guard stops and presents her, the Fire Lord's eyes turn on her expectantly. He's _old _and terrifyingly thin, but she figures she has to present herself as loyal as possible, so she bows low, looking down at her feet.

"You are the waterbender?" asks the Fire Lord. His croaking voice echoes from the throne.

"Yes, my lord," she replies, still bowed.

"Stand up."

She straightens, still looking at her feet when something inside her begins to burn. This is the _Fire Lord._ This is the man who ultimately took her from her family. This is the man who ordered Iroh to begin the siege. This is the man who could have stopped the war, but didn't.

She looks up and locks eyes with the old man in the throne. The guard beside her visibly stiffens out of the corner of her vision.

Fire Lord Azulon frowns. "Have you not been addressed on the decorum required to—"

"I have, _my lord," _she interrupts, letting her voice drawl slightly on the title.

His brows furrow even more. "Prince Iroh, this is the waterbender you claimed to be so valuable?"

"Yes, my lord." Iroh's voice only fuels Katara's anger toward the Fire Lord.

"Prince Ozai, you claim this waterbender has no use for the future?"

"Yes, my lord, my great father, son of Fire Lord Sozin," says Ozai quickly, rushing forward. "The waterbender's use has been expunged. Not only has Iroh returned a failure, with no son, but he is holding onto this waterbender out of cowardice and sentiment."

"How old is Prince Zuko, Prince Ozai?" says Fire Lord Azulon.

"Thirteen, my lord," says Ozai, though confusion flashes through his expression.

Fire Lord Azulon says nothing else to Ozai. Instead, he tells Katara to move closer. "You are very young, waterbender," says the fire lord. "And not very powerful."

She tilts her nose up. "Thank you."

"That was not a compliment, pathetic child."

"I'll take it as one."

The flames in front of the Fire Lord suddenly shoot toward the ceiling. She flinches, but otherwise holds her ground. "Tell me, waterbender!" says the Fire Lord angrily. Suddenly, his age doesn't matter any longer. "Tell me why _you_ are so worthy to be kept outside of the dungeons!"

"I'm a healer," says Katara readily. "If you let me, I can heal your injured soldiers. I'll save you your coin, and your physicians can learn a thing or two from me." She's bluffing. She knows it, Iroh knows it, and she's pretty certain Ozai knows it, too. She's an awful healer, Spirits be with her. But if she can convince the Fire Lord, she won't be subject to the dungeons.

"_You," _says Fire Lord Azulon, "are a _healer?_"

"Yes. I tended to soldiers during the siege. Unfortunately, earthbenders found our camp and destroyed our supplies. Nearly all of the soldiers recovering in the camp were killed."

The Fire Lord regards her with an unreadable expression. Finally, he says lowly, "You did not mention she was a _healer, _Prince Iroh."

"I did not know if it was in my place to speak for her abilities, my lord." Iroh's words are calm and collected.

"And you, Prince Ozai? What reason do you have?"

"I did not know, my lord," says Ozai through gritted teeth. "But that does not mean she will be _any_—"

"You may remain as a servant here in the palace, waterbender," says the Fire Lord, cutting Ozai off. Affronted, Ozai straightens abruptly, swiveling around to glare daggers at Katara. Fire Lord Azulon continues anyway. "You will spend all your time either healing the soldiers or teaching our physicians. Until then, waterbender, you shall remain out of the dungeons. But when you are finished and we have nothing else to use from you, you will be locked in the deepest cell of the tower."

Katara smiles sweetly and says, "Of course, _my lord."_

Without waiting for permission, she turns and stalks straight out of the throne room with Ozai howling in anger as she leaves.

* * *

The next week she spends with the physicians. She doesn't want to show how amateur she is at healing, so instead she tries to teach the physicians the movements and gentle waterbending techniques to manage blood flow through massages, should they want to use it in flame therapy. (Apparently, flame therapy is popular in massaging chi to certain areas of the body where it has been blocked off. But the technique they use is sharp and unsuited for managing blocked chi, and Katara actually teaches them to use gentler movements for the therapy sessions.)

That week is also the week she starts hearing about Ozai. Everywhere.

It starts when Rei shows up when she's finishing up with the physicians. He looks healthier. Except he's still missing his arm. It's still hard to look at, especially since it reminds her of his mutilated hand and how she wasn't good enough to heal it.

"Don't worry about my arm, Katara," says Rei crossly when he sees her eyes drifting to his shoulder every minute. "It could have been a lot worse."

"You're right," she says.

He looks completely unconvinced but lets it go anyway. "I just wanted to let you know," he says, "that Fire Lord Azulon just named Prince Ozai as the heir to the throne, instead of Prince Iroh."

Katara balks. "You're joking."

"I'm being completely serious."

"He can't just—" Katara kicks furiously as the air in front of her. "How did Ozai pull that off?"

"_Prince _Ozai," says Rei, and for a moment, he looks amused, and she suddenly remembers the time with him on the ship on the way to Ba Sing Se with Jao Ra. He seems to remember it too, because his smile drops and he continues hastily, "I don't know how he did it. But it probably has something to do with Prince Zuko and Princess Azula. Think about it, Katara. Prince Iroh doesn't have any other son, and honestly, he's too old to provide another one. But Prince Zuko and Princess Azula are healthy and can ensure a good line for the throne." He grimaces after a moment. "Well, Princess Azula can. Everyone knows Prince Zuko's not a very good firebender."

"So that's it? He just crowned Ozai as the heir to the throne, then?"

"_Prince Ozai. _And yeah."

Katara bows her head into her hands. "I'm done for."

"Why?"

"He _hates _me," says Katara. "The second the Fire Lord's dead, Ozai will be kicking me back to the dungeons."

Rei looks confused. "Can he override a previous Fire Lord's order like that?"

"He'll probably find some way to say I'm being useless."

"You're not useless," says Rei. "You're kind of annoying sometimes, but that's because you're a girl."

"Thanks, Sokka," she mutters, before she blanches. She didn't mean to say that.

"Who's Sokka?" says Rei.

"No one," says Katara.

Rei still looks unconvinced, but he plows on. "So that's what happened. A couple of the servant kids saw the princess roaming around the courtyards singing to herself. She looks really happy, all the time. I guess it's nice to be promoted to third in line for the crown rather than fifth."

"I guess."

Rei lays his hand on her shoulder. "Keep me updated, will you?"

"Okay."

"Thanks."

He leaves, his arm swinging at his side. He doesn't lean over to his left anymore, Katara notices. It still doesn't help with the fact that his right arm is gone altogether.

* * *

The next day, no one talks.

"What's going on?" she asks one of the servant kids beside her. She's about two years younger than her, with dark skin—but not nearly as dark as hers—and topaz colored eyes that look a lot like Jao Ra's did.

"Prince Ozai's wife disappeared," says the kid. "Lady Ursa? You know her, right? She's gone."

Katara doesn't learn any more than that. Later that day, as she's taking a tray to Iroh's room for tea, she spots Zuko in the courtyard. He's sitting under a tree at a pond with wet cheeks and bloodshot eyes, and turtleducks squabble at him loudly from where she's standing. She rushes by, though, eager to not be seen.

* * *

A week and a half later, Fire Lord Azulon passes away. The gossip around the palace indicates that he died in his sleep, but that it was completely unexpected. The city dresses in white that day, and when she sees the smoke rise in the distant part of the city, she knows—along with the rest of the servants—that Fire Lord Azulon's body was burned to join Lord Sozin's ashes in the history of the most awful Fire Lords ever, in her humble opinion.

A month later, with Ozai crowned as Fire Lord, she hears about the Agni Kai. She hears about how Ozai lifted his hand against his own son, and how Zuko shamefully refused to lift a hand back. She hears about how Ozai called him a coward and a failure. She hears about how Ozai burned an obscenely large amount of Zuko's face. She hears about the exile, and how he only has one day to leave. She hears about the Avatar, and how Zuko has to find him to regain his honor and dignity in order to return for the Fire Nation. She hears it all from Rei.

"Prince Iroh's going with him," says Rei.

Katara's head shoots up. "What?"

"Prince Iroh's going with him. Fire Lord Ozai is basically shoving him out the palace doors right now, saying he's a traitor and he needs to regain his honor, too."

She leaps up and spins in place, trying to gather herself. "No, no, no," she says. "He can't leave. He's—he's kept me safe from the dungeons. I need to go with him. I need to go with him, right now."

"Katara, you _can't," _says Rei, his hand coming to grab her wrist. "They're _exiled. _You can't ever come back."

She hears an underlying tone in his voice. _Don't leave me like Jao Ra._

"I'm sorry, Rei," says Katara, shoving her hand into her pocket and grabbing her Pai Sho tile. "But if I stay here, I can't ever come back to the palace again, either. I'll only be in the dungeons."

She smiles and hugs him tightly. "Thanks for everything, Rei." And she rushes out of the room, taking no belongings except the clothes on her back and the Pai Sho tile in her pocket.

When she reaches the palace doors, Iroh smiles at her. Zuko is already on the ship, he says. Zuko doesn't want to talk to anyone, he says. Zuko has already charted their course for the Air Temples, he says.

Sending a prayer to both La and Agni for Rei, she doesn't watch the palace doors close. She only looks ahead of her. This is her chance to see her family. If Zuko is on a quest to find the Avatar, then she can use it to her advantage.

For the first time in a long time, she smiles a genuine smile.

* * *

**Hope you enjoyed it. Please leave a review! From now on, we're going to slow down with the time skips. It'll be a little more day-to-day, hour-to-hour interaction in each chapter rather than month-to-month and year-to-year. I've basically finished the backstory for Katara. Now there will be plenty of Zuko/Katara bonding time :)**

**Review please!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer: **Man, I wish I owned ATLA, but I don't. Welp.

**Notes: **w h o a, you guys are great! Thanks so much! It's so nice to see people liking Rei and Jao Ra :) The fun thing about the ATLA world is you can make such great OCs. If anyone's wondering, I'll be getting up character designs for those two soon. Y'all will be seeing Rei later. (Sorry. Jao Ra's gone.)

**Important: I fixed Katara's age. She's still the same age right now, but I fixed the timeline for how long she was in prison. She was taken by the Southern Raiders when she was eight, not six, and spent only one year in the prison instead of three. So she's still the same age as you know her currently, but she was a little older when she was captured. **Thanks!

* * *

**Chapter 5**

"What do you mean," comes a voice from down the hall, "you_ brought her with us?"_

Katara stills, tightening her hold on the bag slung over her shoulder. Those words are the first words she's heard the banished prince say since she left for Ba Sing Se. She hasn't even seen him yet with his injury, and she was on her way to offer her healing abilities—decidedly amateur healing abilities—as a peace offering, but apparently, he's already made up his mind.

"Katara wanted to come."

"And you just _let_ her? Did I say I wanted a peasant on my ship?"

Peasant. After all this time, she hears the word again, and she realizes just how much she wanted to forget it. Katara feels her fingers twitch furiously. All she wanted was to offer him a chance to recover. But no—if he thinks she's too disgusting and low to be associated with, then so be it.

"You must learn to speak with more dignity than that, Prince Zuko."

"What do you want me to say? You brought a waterbender along. What am I supposed to do with her? Let her out onto the deck and have her wreck my entire ship? If you haven't noticed, Uncle, we're sailing. Sailing means we're _surrounded by water. _She's a _waterbender!_"

_Yeah,_ thinks Katara hotly, _I sure am. _

"She is a child, much like you. You are only thirteen."

"That doesn't matter. I have a mission to complete, and she's going to get in the way. It might have been different if you were with Lu Ten. But you're not. I'm not your son, and you can't treat me like I am."

Katara cringes. Silence echoes all the way down the hall to where she's standing. It's the loudest, most ear-shrieking silence she's ever experienced.

Then—"I think I'll go to sleep. Perhaps tomorrow will bring a better day. Sleep well, Prince Zuko."

Seconds later, Iroh walks out and turns toward her. He notices her standing in the partial darkness of the hallway and bows respectfully. "Sleep well, Katara." And he disappears around the corner.

Before she knows what she's doing, Katara walks straight up to the doorway and opens her mouth to reprimand the prince. But all she sees is a bald head with an awkward ponytail, including a bonus bandage wrapped around the left side of the face, and her words end up coming out as an unceremonious, indiscernible croak.

The naked head on a body of armor glares at her with one angry golden eye. "What do _you_ want?"

"What's on your head?" she asks lamely, unable to come up with anything else.

"Don't make fun of me. It's a royal hairstyle."

"You're _bald,_" she tells him.

"So I've noticed," he says icily. Katara wonders vaguely if he would be a better waterbender than a firebender with his cold voice. Perhaps then he'd be a better bender.

She folds her arms over her chest and gives him a stern look. "I was going to ask if you wanted me to try to heal your injury, but since you're so rude, I won't."

"I wouldn't let you anyway!" Zuko draws his knees to his chest and wraps his arms around them protectively. He turns his bandaged side away from her. "Don't touch me."

"Fine," she snaps. "See if I care when that comes off and you look like a hogmonkey. Also, you shouldn't say stuff like that to Iroh."

Zuko frowns. "Like what?"

"All that stuff about Lu Ten. That was mean, and you know it."

"Why do _you_ care?" demands Zuko.

Katara finally identifies the bubbling in her gut as complete and utter disgust. "You should care more! He was your cousin! Forget I ever said _anything. _I'm only here because I'd be in the prisons otherwise. But as soon as we reach the South Pole, I'm gone. And you won't ever have to deal with me again."

She spins around, slams the door shut, and tries not to think about the fact that she probably won't reach the South Pole for at least another year.

* * *

The next morning, Katara tries to find her way up to the deck. The halls of the ship are unsurprisingly empty, and after traveling one direction for two minutes, she finds out the ship is pretty small, too. Frustrated, she turns and heads the other way to find the stairwell.

Something scurries away from her in the corner of her vision—an elephant rat. Katara frowns. She remembers them from the prison, and she used to be horribly scared of them. But if they're wandering around this tiny ship, she figures it's not exactly a sign of generosity from Ozai to his son.

The ship is utter junk. That much is obvious to her. It isn't meant to last for long periods of time in the open sea, and it was clearly handed to Zuko with the intention and hope of failure. The size is the first indication. But elephant rats? She shivers to herself.

After a couple more minutes, she manages to find the stairwell. It's musty and red, filled with specks of moisture and dust that cling to Katara like a second skin. She climbs the stairs quickly and pushes the door at the top open to breathe in the fresh air of the deck. _Finally._

The deck, at least, allows her to be closer to the water. She's not separated by metal and dust and elephant rats—only by sweet, salty air, if a little warm.

"Hey, waterbender," says one of the crewmembers a little ways from her. He's sitting with a handful of other crewmembers, not really doing much. "This just came for you." He holds up a scroll.

When she walks over and takes it, she notices a hasty Southern Water Tribe insignia on it. Her eyes widen and take in the messenger hawk hopping about in the little circle made by the crewmembers.

"Thanks," she says, almost ripping the scroll in her haste to tear the seal. The words that meet her eyes are much more legible than her own handwriting is, but it's unfamiliar. She feels a weight settle on her as she notes that fact vaguely. She's been gone far longer than she should have been.

_Katara—_

_Three years! Three whole years! It's not your fault! It's the stupid Fire Nation's fault. Listen—it's just me and mom here right now. Dad was crazy without you. He went to find you. That was two years ago, when he finally finished rebuilding the tribe from the raid. I don't know where he is. We haven't had word from him in a long time. _

_Katara, you have to come back. Nothing's been the same. If dad doesn't send word for another two years, they're going to make me chief. I can't be chief. I don't know the first thing about being chief. Dad wasn't around!_

_Mom wanted to send something to you. The hawk's getting antsy so I guess I have to wrap this scroll up soon. She put in her pendant. She said you should keep it._

_Don't forget who the enemy is, Katara! The Fire Nation is full of evil jerks. You can't trust any of them! You're lucky you're out._

_Try to write back, okay? Mom's crying. She's so happy but she's also scared. _

_Love, _

_Sokka_

_PS – MOM DOESN'T KNOW I'M WRITING THIS. Don't come home yet. I'll keep her company until you do. Try to find Dad, okay? I'm stuck here at the South Pole, and I can't leave. Dad took all the men with him to find you, so I'm the only one left. You have to find Dad. I'm scared about what Mom will do if he doesn't come back home._

Katara's hands tremble and the scroll in her hands shake as her eyes move over it again. It isn't until the parchment begins to sag and the ink begins to blur when she sees the teardrops on the page. She hastily wipes her eyes with the back of her hand and looks at the hawk, which is trying to shake something out of its scroll slot.

She reaches over and carefully pulls out a pendant. It _is_ her mother's pendant, with the blue ribbon and the careful carvings on the rare gem. Katara's lips turn into a frown and she tries to keep herself from quaking. It doesn't do her much good.

The crew sitting in front of her looks around at each other. One of them sighs and gets up. "Are you okay, waterbender?"

She nods and wraps her fingers tightly around the pendant. Her cheeks are wet. Her cheeks are very wet.

"Where's the prince?" says one crew member. "Did he come on deck at all this morning?"

"No," says someone else. "He's been holed up in his chambers. I saw Gu leave to tend to his burn."

Katara looks unseeingly at all of them, before her eyes settle on the hawk again. She sniffs and says, "Where can I get some parchment?"

"Sorry, waterbender," says a crew member. "No can do. Orders are that all communication need to be for Prince Zuko's mission only."

"But I just got—"

"It's not gonna happen, kid. Sorry."

She clenches and unclenches her fist around the scroll and holds it close to her chest. "Okay," she says. "Thanks for letting me at least get this message."

The crew member who stood up looks uncomfortable. "You're welcome," he says tersely. She thinks it's because he isn't used to be thanked for something so trivial.

Or it might just be because he's not used to dealing with _waterbending peasants._

She trudges away and the crew resumes conversation as she leaves.

* * *

There aren't any servants on the ship—everything was so quickly and poorly planned that in the end, Zuko only ended up grabbing a handful of soldiers before he left the Fire Nation. Occasionally, as Katara sits in the pitiful cupboard Zuko deemed as her makeshift chambers, she can hear him barking orders at the poor crewmembers who have no idea what they're doing.

"This isn't what I asked for!" spits the furious prince a few paces away from her room. "Everyone here is so _incompetent!"_

Angry stomping happens from one end of the hall, passes in front of her door, then moves all the way down to the other end. She sighs and adjusts her head on her arm as she leans her head against the wall and shuts her eyes.

Katara barely registers the fact that the stomping comes back and stops right in front of her door.

"Waterbender," says the prince, rapping one on her door. "Get out."

She exhales slowly and opens her eyes. Maybe if she waits him out, he'll leave. There's no _honor_ in forcing a girl out of her room.

"I know you're in there."

Katara smiles slightly to herself.

"Waterbender!"

She closes her eyes again.

Suddenly, there's the horrible stench of burning metal. Her eyes wrench open and she jumps to her feet as Zuko furiously rips the door from its melted hinges.

"What are you _doing?"_ she screams at him. "Don't you have any sense of—"

"Don't talk down to me, peasant. It's not worth your time," he snarls, pulling on her sleeve. She's forced to follow him out of her tiny bedroom and into the ship's hallway. "You're coming with me right now. No one else knows how to do anything around here."

"What in La's name do I have to do?" she demands.

He stops and turns to face her with a scowl. "Why do you ask so many questions?"

"Why do _you_—"

"Agh!" says Zuko. "Forget it. Just follow me, for Agni's sake, and be _useful_ for once." He wraps a hand painfully around her wrist and drags her behind him. The angry stomping is no longer angry—it's furious, and she hates it. But she can't say anything now. It's clearly no use.

When they finally reach a room on a different level of the tiny ship (she's memorized the way here, there's no way Zuko's going to walk her back), he knocks on the door impatiently. "Open up, Gu," he says.

The door opens and a very tired looking middle-aged man—decidedly younger than Iroh—casts weary eyes on him. "Good afternoon, my prince."

Katara holds in her shock. This is the same physician who woke her to send her to Fire Lord Azulon the day she was allowed to stay in the palace.

Zuko sends no sort of greeting back. "Here's the waterbender," says Zuko. "She's a healer. Or so she claims. You," he says, poking at Katara's shoulder, "are to help Gu with whatever your duties were back in the palace."

Gu turns his head to look at her. "Hello, waterbender," he says. "Don't worry. I haven't forgotten the lessons you taught me in the palace."

Zuko, confused, looks back and forth between them. "You know each other?"

"I taught him some techniques for flame therapy," says Katara. "At least, I tried to. And he was at the siege of Ba Sing Se."

The prince huffs and steps away. "Well, you better hope you all get better at what you're doing. Gu's the only physician on here. I don't have time to make sure we stop and get treatment whenever we need it." His eye catches onto something on the wall, before he swallows thickly and says, "Get to work." And he stomps away.

"It's nice to see you again, waterbender," says Gu.

"You, too," she tells him. She stares at the metal walls around her. They're very reflective. She can see her reflection well enough to tell she has dark circles under her eyes…

She sighs. Of course. That's what the prince was looking at the wall for.

"We should work hard," she tells Gu. "Zuko will probably want you to try to heal his eye."

As she walks inside his room—which appears more to her as an infirmary—she hears Gu say, "Not many people call the prince by his name only."

"He's not a prince to me."

"I see."

She stops at Gu's tone. He doesn't seem very surprised to hear those words. "Doesn't that bother you?" she asks him.

"Well," says Gu, his mouth downturned, "of course it does. He is my prince."

"He doesn't seem to treat you very well."

The physician's expression doesn't change. "He is still my prince. But I can't change anyone else's opinion of him, and there is no reason for you to see him as we do."

"What if I say I don't see Ozai as a Fire Lord?"

Now visibly shaken, Gu says, "You are, perchance, venturing on treasonous words."

"Alright," says Katara. "I won't say that, then."

Looking at her warily, Gu opens his mouth to say something else before he seems to think better of it. He closes his mouth again.

"What is it?"

"I would ask you to please watch your words while referring to the Fire Lord," says Gu.

Katara isn't cruel. She looks Gu squarely in the eye, at this shifting thirty-year old who seems so timid in her—a mere eleven-year-old—presence, and says, "I will."

Relieved, the physician's stiffened figure relaxes. "Thank you, waterbender."

"My name is Katara," she tells him. "Now let's look at the therapy technique again."

* * *

After a while, Katara leaves the infirmary—she won't call it _Gu's room, _not when there are so many cots and sheets strewn everywhere that it's impossible to see which corner he actually calls _his room_—and heads off to where she thinks her little closet is. It isn't so little, now that she thinks about it, but it is a little smaller than the cell she had back in the dungeons—at least, the caged part of it.

On her way, she runs into Iroh, who is carrying a peculiar metal object in his arms.

"Katara," says Iroh pleasantly, though he still looks worn. "Can I help you with anything?"

She shakes her head and instead motions to the object. "What's that?"

"A tsungi horn," says Iroh, holding it up. He smiles largely and taps the end of the horn. "It's a very beautiful instrument."

"I've never seen it before," she says. "Do you play it a lot?"

"Oh, yes. I'm trying to get a music night started every week on this ship. But my nephew doesn't seem to agree with me…"

Katara holds back an awful grimace. Of course Zuko didn't agree with Iroh. Zuko never agreed with Iroh.

Iroh seems to push that aside as he looks at her with curious eyes. "When would you like to resume your waterbending lessons?"

"Wow," she sputters, her brows rising. "I didn't know you would still—but anytime—I don't know, whenever is best for you?"

"I am on my nephew's schedule."

"Won't he be upset if I keep waterbending?"

"Prince Zuko gets upset with many things these days," says Iroh wisely. "Perhaps tomorrow's nightfall? Waterbenders work best then."

* * *

When she is as comfortably situated in her little closet as she can be (thankfully the door's hinges had been fixed), she hears footsteps approaching from down the hall. It isn't angry stomping. But it is hurried, filled with irritated purpose, and she tries to swallow an annoyed grimace when there is a knock on her door. "Waterbender."

"Who is it?" she asks, though she knows perfectly well who it is.

"Don't play games. Let me in."

She might as well, just so that he doesn't melt her door off again. She reaches over and pulls the door open. "What do you want?"

He looks at her and then around her little room. "I didn't know this room was so small."

"You put me in here. You should know how small it is."

Looking somewhat uncomfortable, he says to her, "I wasn't paying attention to this room. I didn't know you'd be here."

Katara wonders if he'll apologize. He doesn't. Instead, the weird look vanishes from his face, and he says to her, "I need to talk to you."

She gestures to the floor. "Make yourself comfortable, then."

He sits down awkwardly and the moonlight from the small window at the top of the cupboard reflects off his recently shaved head. She tries to not stare at the ponytail hanging from a peculiar patch of hair, but when she moves her eyes to stare somewhere else on his face, all she can look at is the bandage.

"I want to talk to you about my injury," he says monotonously. She realizes he's probably rehearsed what he's telling her.

"Okay. Go on."

"I want you to try to heal it," he says.

"And what do I get in return?"

His brow knits itself into the bandage opposite of it. "In return?"

"Yes. You can't expect me to try to heal something like a big burn on your face without payment."

Affronted, Zuko straightens. "I'm a prince, peasant. I don't require _payment._ You have to do what I tell you."

"You're no prince to me," she says. "Lu Ten was."

There's a very long silence after her words. When she looks back at him, she sees he looks shaken and mad all at once. "I'm sorry about what I said," says Zuko tightly, like he's forcing the words out of his mouth. "About Lu Ten."

She lets herself remember Lu Ten for a brief moment. Only a brief moment. And then she looks at Zuko—no, she glares at him—and tells him, "I'm only doing this for Lu Ten, because he was a better person than you'll ever be."

Zuko opens his mouth to retort something at her before he shuts his lips and bites the inside of his cheek, obviously fuming. "Fine," he spits. "Fine. You better heal it."

"I can't make any guarantees, either. I'm not as good as whatever you heard."

"If Fire Lord Azulon made a peasant like you help the physicians in the palace, you must be at least a little talented."

Katara ignores the backhanded compliment. "Take off your bandage."

His hands move behind his head and begin to unravel the cloth wrapped diagonally around his eye. He hesitates when it begins to fall, and he holds it gingerly to his eye as the other one looks at her. She can't identify the look in his eye.

"Don't say anything," says Zuko, "unless I ask you. Okay?"

"Okay."

He takes this as encouragement and lets the cloth fall to his lap.

It's disgusting, and that's about the only thing Katara can think as she sets her eyes on the winding angry red on the left side of Zuko's face. He used to be a handsome little boy who looked just like his father, from what Katara can remember from when she saw him in the courtyard of the palace mourning his mother's disappearance, but the same can't be said now. There are awful welts all around his eye, which is swollen completely shut in the presence of such an awful burn.

She doesn't think she can heal this. When she opens her mouth to tell him that fact, he says, "_Don't._ Just get to work." He reveals a glass of water and holds it out to her. "Here."

Katara lifts the water from the glass. "Sit still," she says quietly, disobeying Zuko's words, and Zuko looks horribly annoyed for a moment before he shuts his working eye.

She holds a trembling hand to the left side of his face. The room turns into a fluorescent blue as she places a shaking hand on the burn. He hisses in pain, turning his body in on itself, and she moves her other hand to hold his shoulder back. "Stay still!" she says. "Just bear it out."

"It—hurts—"

"It'll get better, I promise—"

His shoulders shake as he takes in staggering breaths. "Wh—when? It hurts—"

There is so much damage in the burn that Katara can literally feel her hold on the water slipping. "Just hold still, Zuko," she pleads. "I can't do this if you keep—"

"_Dammit, peasant, I'm trying as best I can!" _

A second later, she lets go of the water and it sloshes onto Zuko's lap. "I can't do it," she says. "I can't—I'm sorry. It won't… it's supposed to feel better after a moment, but all that's happening to you is pain, and—I can't do anything else. It's stuck that way."

He's shaking.

"Zuko?"

"Useless," he bites out. "Useless." His whole right cheek is wet with tears. The horrid scarlet of his burn is wet with the water she used to try to heal it.

"I tried my best—"

"Useless," he says, and he shoots to his feet, swaying. "Useless."

"Zuko, you can't go anywhere like that."

"_Useless!"_ he screams at her.

"Sit down!" she yells right back at him. "You can't go anywhere like that. You'll be on the floor before you can reach your chambers."

He collapses to his knees again and holds the good side of his face in his hand. "Useless," he mutters.

"Could you stop saying that? It doesn't make me feel any better. You know I wish I could fix it."

"Useless," he whispers.

It isn't until he's asleep against the far end of the cupboard wall when he cries "useless" in his dreams and she learns he doesn't mean it toward her. She takes a long look at the glaring injury on his face before she shuts her eyes and leans against the opposite wall, trying to imagine a kinder set of eyes than the ones that have fallen asleep in her tiny cupboard.

* * *

**Shorter, I know. But I promise things will be getting more interesting. Next up—Western Air Temple. Thanks for keeping up with this!**

**(Are people okay with me switching POVs every once in a while? Not from annoying little shifts—like Zuko to Katara to Zuko again. More like Katara to someone else in a completely different area where we should probably get some news as to what's going on.)**

**Thanks! Please review. :)**


	6. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer: **no no no no no no no

**Notes: **Eyyyy thanks guys! Hope you enjoy. Zutara gives me life.

* * *

**Chapter 6**

When she wakes—her neck has an awful cinch in it because of how she slept—Zuko's gone.

Of course, there's no evidence about the fact that he was there before, but when she moves around she feels her heel knock into the glass of water that he brought in the previous night. It's empty, thankfully.

Katara opens the door and looks out into the hallway. Everything is quiet, with the exception of the clang of steel in the background, managing the ship's movement. Everyone is probably on deck. Being inside the ship for too long would make many of the crew members nauseous, if they aren't trained for it properly. She's guessing they aren't trained for it, not at all. But for her—for her, it feels nice.

She doesn't quite want to make her way up to deck, though. She needs to find some parchment, ink, _anything._ And then she needs to find that hawk. She _has_ to send another message back to her brother.

_You know you could just ask Zuko,_ says an awful, annoying voice in Katara's head. _Or Iroh._

She stands in the middle of the hallway for a moment, pondering. Despite her attempts to heal Zuko's scar the previous night—the image of it pops into her mind and she has to keep herself from retching—she doubts he'd let her reply to Sokka's message.

With Zuko out of the question, she thinks about asking Iroh. Would he let her? He was a better bet than Zuko.

And then she thinks about Lu Ten. She can't ask that of Iroh. It's been… it's been way too soon, and asking him this favor again would only tarnish Lu Ten's memory.

_Looks like I'm on my own,_ she thinks. _Time to find some ink and paper._

She can try the communications room, but she's sure that it's guarded. She decides to try Iroh's room. With her luck, he's out on deck, and she hurries to room. Maybe his hawk will be there, too.

Because of the small crew, there are no guards around Iroh's room. They all have better things to do, Katara figures. She enters and sees the hawk sleeping on its perch.

It wakes when she enters and caws blearily at her. "I need a favor," she tells it, pulling out some paper with some ink. "Can you do something for me?"

The hawk looks at her apprehensively.

She scrawls something on the parchment—she can't risk much—but she tells Sokka that she's fine and she'll do what he wants, and hopefully they'll see each other soon. And then she tells the hawk to send it to the Southern Water Tribe.

But then something else strikes her. "Don't go yet," she says to the hawk. "I have something else for you." She takes out another scroll writes something on it also.

When she's finished, she rolls it up and seals it before tucking it into the container on the hawk's back. "Can you deliver two messages?" she asks the hawk. It cocks its head at her before blinking.

Katara sighs. "I don't know what that means, but I'm going to assume that you can. The first one I gave you is for Sokka of the Southern Water Tribe, like I told you before. You need to deliver that one _second._ The one I just gave you is for Hakoda of the Southern Water Tribe. I don't know where he is, but hopefully you can find him. That one is more important. Deliver that one first."

The hawk pecks at her fingers angrily. "I know it's a long mission!" she hisses. "But you have to do it."

"You're asking it to do a suicide mission."

She whips around and finds Zuko sitting in the corner, cross-legged and angry. Inwardly, she breathes a sigh of relief when she sees the bandage wrapped around his eye again. But outwardly, she jumps. "What are you doing here?"

"Waiting for my uncle," says Zuko, his eyebrow rising. "I'd ask what _you're_ doing here, but I figured it out when you let yourself into the room and didn't bother looking around for anyone else."

"You've been here the _whole time?"_

"Every single second of it," he says. Katara hears the anger start seeping into his voice. "What are you _thinking?_ I've explicitly ordered all communication from this ship to be about the Avatar only. And here you are sending a message to the Southern Water Tribe?"

He stands so violently she's afraid he's going to trip and fall right back over. Jutting a finger in her direction, he says, "We can't risk the security of this ship and my crew just because you want to send some letter to your peasant tribe!"

"Wh—how dare you!" Katara points a finger straight back at him. "You can't just—how dare you! My _peasant tribe? _It's not my fault it's a small tribe! _You're _the one who made it that way!"

"That wasn't me!"

"It was so! All of you. All of you crazy firebenders took all the waterbenders from our tribe and completely destroyed our whole city."

"That wasn't me!" Zuko breathes out heavily from his nostrils—Katara has the strong sense that he's struggling to keep any sort of composure he has under control. "See? This is why I said you can't come! I told Uncle you can't come with us. But _no,_ he just tagged you along anyway. If I had any say at all, you'd be back in the dungeons."

"You are absolutely—!"

"You _can't_ send a letter to your tribe," says Zuko, plowing on, "and you definitely can't keep wandering around here like you own the place. Next time, knock!"

She doesn't know she's crying until she feels one trickle down her cheek and drop to the floor. "You should be ashamed of yourself," she spits, pulling her shoulders back and pushing her chin up. She won't let some angry firebender get the better of her. "You—you have no idea how to do anything. You should be ashamed that you treat everyone around you like dirt."

"See if I care," says Zuko. "I am the son of Fire Lord Ozai. I act however will please my father."

He jabs his finger in the direction of the door this time and says, "I don't want to see you right now. Leave."

"Ungrateful," she mutters, starting for the door.

Before she can slam it behind her, she hears him yell in an effort to get the last word, "Peasant!"

* * *

For the next few hours, Katara is still seething. Her lesson with Iroh—after he came back from speaking with Zuko—was awful. Of course, he didn't question her, but his concern was evident. Even thinking on it now, Katara is ashamed about how she went about her lesson. Iroh never deserves treatment like what she gave him earlier. That's Zuko's job.

And then—of course—she gets mad again.

But, despite her horrid attitude during the whole lesson, she appreciates the newfound freedom Iroh is giving her. She is no longer a prisoner in any regard; she is an equal, despite whatever _Prince Zuko, son of Fire Lord Ozai and Banished Crown Prince of the Fire Nation_ says to put her down. Katara tells herself he's just a horrible person. Just like his dad.

When Katara's lesson is finished, Iroh thanks her for her time and then lays a gentle hand on her shoulder. "My nephew has told me some interesting news this morning."

"Of course he did," says Katara, sighing.

"He said you were going to send a scroll to the Southern Water Tribe. As well as another scroll to an unspecified location. Is that true, Katara?"

"Yeah," she mumbles.

Iroh nods sympathetically. "Were I commander of these forces, my dear, I would have been more understanding to your sentiments… fate can be cruel by separating families. I know this pain well."

She can't breathe. It hurts whenever Iroh speaks of Lu Ten. _La,_ she misses him, so much.

"But my nephew is in charge of this crew, and unfortunately, I cannot have anything diverted from his original plans. Your messages will have to wait, my dear." An amused twinkle lights in his eyes. "And be sure to send the hawk on one mission each time. Especially on a mission with a specific destination. Trying to locate a person on its own is nearly impossible."

"Right," she says, flushing horribly. "Sorry."

His belly rumbles with a laugh and the world seems a little brighter. "Good. Now, then—I believe my nephew has set you up to work with Gu, our physician."

"Yeah," says Katara. "I guess. I worked with him yesterday."

"Perhaps you should find him now and begin work again."

"Alright." Katara closes her waterskin—Iroh had bought her a nice one from a market—and bows politely. "Thank you, Iroh."

After her session with Gu, Katara finds herself completely and utterly exhausted. Through her bending lesson and then a healing lesson with the physician, she's completely wiped out, so when a crew member informs her that they are approaching the Western Air Temple, she all but slams her door in his face.

"What was that noise?" shouts an angry voice from the end of the hall.

"Nothing, Prince Zuko," says the crew member in front of the door, sighing. Guilt wells up inside Katara as she hears the crew member walk away.

Her door bursts open. "What are you doing?" demands Zuko.

"You can't just bust in my room!"

"Don't treat my crew that way."

"What? Like the way you treat them?"

Zuko throws his hands up in the air and stalks away, leaving Katara's door swinging. She glares after him before noticing the crew member staring from the other end of the hall.

"Sorry," she calls, looking sheepish. "I didn't mean to slam the door in your face."

"It's alright, waterbender." He nods at her graciously. "It would probably be best if you come on deck soon. We're going to be docking. The prince's first destination is the Western Air Temple."

"Right," she says, rubbing the back of her neck. "I'll be up soon. Thanks."

She turns back to her tiny room and shuts the door, immediately surrounded by silence and the gentle rocking of the ship. Through the light filtering through the tiny window above, she sees her mother's pendant peeking out from under one of her sheets.

She bends downward and picks it up. It's cool to the touch. And, unfortunately, she can't send a message to her family. And tracking her father down will be harder to do.

Katara straps the ribbon around her neck and clasps it as best she can by herself. When she's confident it's secure, she lets her hand run over it once more. It feels right there, like it's meant to be around her neck.

* * *

When she's on deck, she can see land on the horizon. The peaks of a mountain are climbing over the sea. "Is that it?" she asks Gu, who comes to stand beside her.

"Looks like just a mountain to me," he muses. "I don't see anything noteworthy. I wonder how our army managed to find all the nomads here… there doesn't seem to be any buildings of any sort."

"Men!" comes a voice from the starboard. They all turn to face Zuko, who's standing tall—as tall as a nearly fourteen year old boy can stand—with his arms folded across his chest.

"The Western Air Temple is located somewhere around that mountain," he continues. "We'll dock and set up camp to climb the mountain in the morning."

"Guess we have to go pack," says Gu to Katara. "I'm going to head back and pack my kits."

"Do you need help?"

"I got it. You should focus on traveling with the prince."

Puzzled, she asks, "Why?"

"Well," says Gu, "if anything were to happen to him, you would be more able to give him immediate attention to any severe injuries he might gain."

"Great," she mumbles.

"What was that?"

"Nothing." She smiles at him and then looks past him to Iroh and Zuko, the latter of both of them standing with crossed arms and watching everyone with furrowed brows. "I'll see you later, Gu."

Letting him leave to pack his things below deck, she walks to Iroh and Zuko. Iroh smiles at her warmly as Zuko blows a stream of hot air out of his mouth as she approaches.

Strangely enough, Zuko doesn't say anything rude or vaguely incriminating. He avoids her altogether.

"Nephew," begins Iroh, "don't you have something to say?"

Zuko doesn't even meet his uncle's eyes, Katara notices. "No," says the prince broodingly.

"Zuko has something very important to tell you," says Iroh to Katara.

"You always—ugh, Uncle!" Zuko uncrosses his arms and lets them drop to his sides as tight fists. He swivels around to face Katara with a terse look. "I'm-sorry-for-calling-you-a-peasant," he says quickly, all in one breath, red in the face.

Taken aback, Katara says, "Thanks."

He stares at her. Iroh chuckles.

"Oh," says Katara. "And I'm sorry for barging in this morning when I wasn't supposed to."

Zuko gives one quick nod and says, "Good." His voice cracks awkwardly and he turns even more red before he stammers out, clearly not used to apologizing, "Uncle says you have to stay with us as we travel."

"That's right."

"So he says we need to learn how to get along."

"That's probably best," says Katara.

"And I have a lot of firebending lessons to go through," says Zuko, narrowing his eye at her. "So when I'm having lessons, don't interrupt me. Got it?"

"Yes," says Katara.

"And—"

"That's enough, nephew," says Iroh.

Zuko shuts his open mouth, his fists unfurling. He looks as though he's about to burst with whatever he wants to say, but Iroh evidently doesn't want to let him continue. But Katara can guess what he wants.

"I'm not calling you 'Prince Zuko'," says Katara.

Rather than yell at her, Zuko deflates. She was right in her guess. He doesn't say anything else. Beside him, Iroh says, "Ready? Did you need to pack anything?"

She shakes her head.

"Alright," says Iroh. "Then let us head off. The rest of the crew will find us off the ship."

* * *

"Bring him here."

He's been to the curtains plenty, but he's never been inside. They were always horribly intimidating. They descend from the heavens in plaits of heavy red, and they don't move unless pushed apart. And he's never seen the golden throne behind the curtains. Sure, he's seen the man every now and then across the palace back when the lord was a prince, but all that changed when the prince became Fire Lord.

The voice, however, is much the same.

The guards shove him through the curtains and suddenly, he is faced with uncomfortable heat. The light of the flames at the base of the throne stuns him for a moment before he readjusts to the silhouette at its head.

He bares his teeth. He hasn't even done anything wrong to deserve such awful treatment.

"Closer," says Fire Lord Ozai. His voice is a tantalizing mix of luxury and terror and lust. It's the only way he can only begin to describe it.

He's pulled to a standstill several feet away from the flames. For the first time in his life, he's deathly afraid of his own element.

"What's your name, boy?"

"Rei," he says shortly, keeping his eyes on the flames and not on the figure above them.

"Look me in the eyes," says Fire Lord Ozai, "and say that again."

He steels himself for the feeling he knows will coil in his stomach, and then he moves his wavering glare upward. "My name is Rei."

"Very good," says the Fire Lord, as though speaking to a child. In essence, Rei notices bitterly, he is. Rei is only a couple years older than the Fire Lord's eldest son. "And do you know why you're here?"

"No."

"You will address me by my proper title, _peasant._"

Peasant! "No," says Rei, "_my lord."_

There is an odd noise from Fire Lord Ozai, and then he tilts his head back and begins to laugh. Rei stares at him incredulously. "You truly don't know," says the Fire Lord, laughing to the ceiling. "Your kind makes me laugh. All of you. Think hard, boy. You've committed a serious crime against your nation."

"I've done_ nothing_—"

"Oh?" Suddenly, the Fire Lord's wicked grin disappears. Rei's gut does exactly what he didn't want it to do—it coils horribly and Rei feels absolutely sick to his stomach. "And pray tell me _why_ you alerted no one when the waterbender escaped with the cowardly Prince Zuko?"

This is about Katara? _Of course it's about Katara, stupid._ Rei clenches his fist and holds it tight at his side. He can't afford to do anything rash. "I—"

"I have heard _many_ reports about you and the waterbender, and how you are both very good friends," says Fire Lord Ozai. He leans forward from his throne and watches Rei carefully. "And the waterbender was not allowed to leave the Fire Nation, with specific orders requiring her to return to the prisons once her work here was done."

"My lord," says Rei, figuring his only shot out of whatever the Fire Lord had in store for him was pure politeness, "I assure you, I had _no_ intention—"

"I know you had no _intention,_ boy. You're a loyal firebender and soldier to your nation. Your war injury shows just that."

Rei feels both relief and anger at the Fire Lord. He's long since gotten used to working with only one arm, but the slight against his injury nonetheless hurt. But his mouth is still dry, and his tongue is parched with anxiety. "Thank you, my lord."

There's a small smile at the edges of Fire Lord Ozai's mouth. "However," he adds, gold-molted eyes glimmering from the flames below the throne, "the _waterbender_ is a war prisoner who was not supposed to leave. The girl is far from a loyal one. And you, despite whatever intentions you may or may not have possessed, have aided in the release of a criminal."

_Criminal? She didn't do anything wrong!_ "M-my lord?" Rei's heart jumps into his throat. Fire Lord Ozai can't _possibly _be saying Katara's actions reflect on him. He doesn't even know how he would have gone about keeping her in the Fire Nation. _She'd have severed my other arm if I kept her here._

"By not informing the guards of her leave," says Fire Lord Ozai, "and by not attempting to prevent her leave yourself, you must be punished accordingly."

A deathly silence follows those words. He can't bring himself to look angry anymore. Behind him, he can feel the guards smiling viciously at his back. Rei stays shock still, unable to move, _afraid_ to move. It takes a lot to make him afraid. Even through the nightmares he has of Ba Sing Se at night, it takes a lot to make his blood run cold in his veins, and yet, here the Fire Lord is, doing just that. For a brief moment, Rei wonders what would have happened had Lord Azulon still been alive… or if the former Dragon of the West had been able to take the throne. If Prince Lu Ten were still alive.

"I have decided to be merciful," continues Fire Lord Ozai quietly, the smile on his lips slightly larger. "You will carry out the waterbender's prison sentence. Normally, such treason from a Fire Nation citizen would be death."

Life. In prison.

Rei struggles to keep his eyes dry. What has he done to deserve this? Fight for his nation? Save Jao Ra from sickness? Willingly let his mother send him to the palace as a servant so she could have one less mouth to feed?

"Take the servant to the tower," says the Fire Lord. "Now."

The guards hoist Rei up roughly by his one arm and drag him toward the door as he hangs limply from their grips. But before the guards can push the heavy blood-stained curtains back, a voice comes from the throne.

"Oh, and _Rei,_" says Fire Lord Ozai, drawing out Rei's name like a disease, "should the waterbender ever come back to serve her sentence… I may think about letting you go, as another act of mercy. So perhaps you still have hope, hm?"

Rei lets the thought sift through his head for a moment before pushing it to the back of his mind. He can't afford worthless wishes.

"Leave," spits the Fire Lord, and the curtains pull away as Rei is dragged to the tower.

* * *

**And that's it for this one :)**

**I decided to jump back to the Fire Nation because I needed to settle some stuff with Ozai. Ozai is important. Ozai is very important. I will also develop him because I think Ozai is an extremely complicated character and I hate the way the comics developed him. Also, I had to settle something with Rei. That's all.**

**Hope you liked it. Review! Thanks guys :)**


	7. Chapter 7

**Disclaimer: **I don't own anything out of this fic except for Rei and a new Water Tribe character :)

**Notes: **omg you guys. Y'all are the best. It makes me so fuzzy inside to know you like Rei and you like the development of Zuko and Katara's relationship and that you miss Lu Ten and _u g h _you guys make me so happy!

* * *

**Chapter 7**

"Zuko," begins Katara, the question having burned on her tongue for the past hour, "when is your birthday?"

"There is literally no need for you to know when my birthday is," says Zuko as he tries to readjust his bandage.

"I want to know."

Zuko blows out an exasperated stream of air. "Why?"

She narrows her eyes at him as she tries to find what to do with his old cloth. He isn't bleeding anymore, thank the spirits. Zuko came up to her earlier and awkwardly asked her to help change his bandage—she had no choice but to agree, and now she's stuck managing his bandages.

Better than cleaning anything else, she supposes.

"Is it a crime to want to know your birthday?" she says.

"It could be," says Zuko. She knows that look. He's about to spout off on another rant. "You could try to make something horrible of it. There are tons of things you could—"

"I'm not going to try and kill you," she tells him.

He shuts his mouth, annoyed. "You don't need to know my birthday."

"It's just a birthday," she says. "It's not a big deal. Look, I'll tell you mine. I was born a couple days after the fall equinox."

"The fall equinox always moves around," says Zuko suspiciously.

"Whatever! Whenever the fall equinox is, my birthday is two days after it."

Zuko looks at her silently from one of the creaky beds in the medic tent. No one's in there with them—Gu left a while ago to replenish the water supply.

"So? When's your birthday?"

Zuko's brow creases his forehead horribly. "I'm not telling you."

"I _just_ told you mine."

He huffs. "I don't have to tell you anything if I don't want to."

She folds her arms over her chest and gives him a hard glare. "I won't change your bandage next time. You can either have Gu do it, or you can do it yourself."

The prince cringes. He gives her a look as if to say _I can't believe you're making me do this,_ and he mutters incomprehensibly.

She smiles to herself. "What was that?"

"I was born," says Zuko again, louder this time, "on the winter solstice."

She can't help it. She drops his dirty bandage cloth and laughs. When she can gather herself, she sees him sitting broodingly with his eye watching her every move. "_Why_ is that so funny?" he demands.

"A prince of the Fire Nation," she says through her giggles, bending over and picking up the old bandage, "born on the _winter solstice."_

"I don't need that reminder any more than I need you laughing about it."

When she looks at him again, she can tell he's serious. He looks upset, more than she's seen him for a while, and in that moment he looks more like the terrifying Fire Lord Ozai than anyone else.

"Sorry," she says quietly.

He scowls. "Whatever. Forget it. Now you know when my birthday is. Happy?"

Katara dunks his bandage cloth in a basket and stands straight. "Sure, Zuko."

"_Prince _Zuko," he grumbles characteristically.

She shrugs and sits down in front of him. A little while passes as he fidgets, fiddling with his bandage. The burn doesn't look so painful anymore, but it's evident the mark is there to stay. She pushes the image of Zuko's burn away and says, "So… where do you think the Avatar is?"

"You are full of questions, aren't you?" says Zuko. "Hopefully in one of these air temples. If not, I'll search the rest of the world."

Katara doesn't say anything for a long while; Zuko's eye is full of determined menace, and she has to admit that the look doesn't fit him at all. She remembers the bright gold eyes back when she had been encased in the cell of the tower in the Fire Nation Palace; they were inquisitive and innocent, albeit eager to be recognized, and those eyes are nothing like what she sees in front of her.

These eyes are scary, and these are the eyes that did not exist until Prince Ozai became Fire Lord Ozai, and these are the eyes that only prove he is the Fire Lord's estranged and pitiful eldest child. She used to have those eyes, she thinks. She had them while she was alone in the tower, but then she was pulled out… and met the other servants.

"Do you have any friends?" she asks suddenly.

"What sort of question is _that?"_

"It kind of just—" She hesitates, unsure. "—slipped… out?"

"Of course I have friends," says Zuko. "You're ridiculous." He readjusts his bandage again, wincing somewhat, before he gives up altogether and lets his hands thump onto the cot.

"I had a friend," she says, more to herself than to Zuko. She remembers the pale skin of one and the tan skin of the other. "I had two, actually."

Zuko groans and stands. "I don't care. I have to go find Uncle."

"One of my friends' names was Jao Ra," says Katara, looking at her hands. "Did you know him?"

"No." The word is short and rather annoyed.

"He was a servant."

"Then of course I didn't know him," says Zuko. "I don't associate with peasants."

She lets her head snap up to his and levels him with a frigid glare. He only rolls his eyes. "I'm going to find Uncle. I need to figure out how we'll reach the Western Air Temple."

"Fine," she says. "Don't come crying to me when you injure yourself in your bending lesson later. I don't suppose you want a peasant healing you."

Zuko only turns on his heel and strides out, uncaring. Katara frowns at the tent flap when he's gone, wondering how in the four nations the prince became so grossly apathetic to everything but the Avatar.

* * *

Gu only shakes his head at Katara when she asks if he's coming with them around the mountain. "I have to stay here with the rest of the crew," says Gu patiently. "The prince has ordered me to stay behind in case anything happens. Iroh has asked me to lend you a kit so that you may tend to the crew that does travel with the prince."

"You're okay with that?" she asks.

"I've told you before," says Gu. "You are better at tending to immediate injuries. It's best if you go rather than me."

"Okay," she tells him. "I'll see you when we get back, then."

He nods to her and says the same, and she walks off to where Iroh is standing with Zuko, their tents and mats rolled up into large bundles on the three other crew members' backs.

"I don't understand why we can't take everyone, Uncle," says Zuko, annoyed.

"Because a group will need to maintain the ship. You have three capable soldiers here willing to help you."

The crew members—soldiers, rather—all look very unsure.

Zuko seems to notice this, too. "Let's just go," he says. "I want to get to the temple as fast as possible. We don't have time to waste. My father is waiting for me to bring back the Avatar."

When he turns his back to lead them away from the camp, Katara sees the crew members shoot guilty looks at each other, as though all of them know that Zuko's father isn't waiting for Zuko to do anything except fail.

They travel for a long while. It's a rather boring affair, with Zuko leading the way and Iroh following him—she notes vaguely that the grey in his hair has become _very_ noticeable, pulling back from his temples and mixing with the deep brown of his natural color—and the other soldiers follow silently. After a while, it becomes clear that Zuko is pretty unsure about where he's going. None of the soldiers want to mention it to him.

Finally, Iroh speaks up. "Prince Zuko, aren't you getting tired? The sun is getting low in the sky."

"The sun can do what it wants," says Zuko. "I'm not tired." He stumbles a bit as he treads forward. Annoyed, he repeats, "I'm not tired."

Iroh looks unconvinced, and so do the soldiers. One of them speaks up (finally, she thinks). "My prince, if you would excuse me, I believe it would be best to restart in the morning when you have your strength."

"I'm not tired!" says Zuko again.

"You're tired," says Katara. The soldier who had spoken looks surprised at her blunt words, but then he looks relieved when Zuko turns around to face her.

"Don't speak for me," he says tersely. "We are going to get up that mountain tonight. We are going to find that temple as fast as possible."

"And what if you strain yourself in the process?" says Katara. "What if you find the Avatar at the temple and you have to fight him? You'll be too weak."

"She has a point, Nephew."

"Be quiet!" snaps Zuko. "You, waterbender—you have no right to tell me what to do. I _will_ find the Avatar and I won't be too weak. Besides, that's the reason you're here, isn't it? You're a healer."

Katara bristles. "I'm not here for your personal use."

He glares at her before turning back to his route, mumbling something that sounds suspiciously like "whatever".

"Nephew," says Iroh, "please reconsider. You can hardly stand straight. We have been walking for hours, and your crew members are exhausted." He doesn't mention himself, although Katara can see the aging man trying to hold himself from panting.

Zuko rubs a hand over his right eye and groans. "Fine! Fine. Set up camp. I'm going to sleep. Don't disturb me. When I wake at dawn, I expect us to keep moving forward."

"What about your lesson?" says Iroh, surprised. "You have never wanted to miss—"

"Priorities, Uncle!"

Iroh closes his mouth.

"Set up camp," Zuko repeats.

* * *

When their sleeping arrangements are finally settled—Zuko in his own tent, Iroh in his own tent, the soldiers sharing a tent with one posted as watch and the other two sleeping until they rotate—Iroh catches Katara off guard by laying a hand on her shoulder.

"The moon will be rising soon," he says. "Let's have your lesson. Just because Prince Zuko will not be having his does not mean you don't have to."

"Thank you," she says gratefully.

They work through the lesson slowly but carefully. Katara enjoys the feeling of the moon; it makes her warmer, like the sun would do normally, but it does so from the inside. She feels warmer and energetic, filled with adrenaline.

Poor Iroh, she notices, looks more tired than ever—the night is getting long and as a firebender, the man isn't accustomed to working under the light of the moon.

"Are you sure you don't want to stop?" says Katara, unfreezing some water she had pinned into the ground. It seeps into the grass and vanishes. "I think we've done a lot. Right?"

Iroh relaxes. "There isn't much left I can try to teach you, Katara. You must be willing to practice and develop your skills yourself." He gives her a bright smile despite his obvious fatigue. "You have come a long way from when we brought you out from the tower." And then his face falls. He's remembering Lu Ten.

"You're right," she says awkwardly. "I'm not good, though. But thanks for teaching me and trying to help."

"Of course, my dear," says Iroh. "Why don't you go get some sleep?"

She agrees and bids him goodnight, slipping into her bag and trying to ignore the cold that is starting to settle in the night.

* * *

The morning comes harshly to her. Mostly because Zuko's irritated voice is cutting through their tiny camp like a million daggers. She groans and flips onto her stomach, doing her best to drown him out.

"Waterbender! Wake up. We're leaving!"

Her eyes snap open and she glares at the grass in front of her.

"Someone wake the waterbender up. We need to leave. If she doesn't wake up, we're going without her."

Katara feels her whole body erupt with exasperation. "I'm _up!"_ she says, sitting up violently and fixing a cold look on the prince. "I couldn't sleep through your crazy screaming if I tried."

He doesn't say anything. He only turns and goes back to his tent, which is now densely rolled to be packed away.

Only ten minutes later, they are heading up the mountain again. Zuko is treading through the terrain with more vivacity than the previous day; to the credit of the three soldiers accompanying them, they are keeping up with him easily.

Katara isn't meant for scaling such land. She's never climbed a mountain before. Her lungs are killing her. Iroh seems to be at the same level she is. His care about his well-being deteriorated a good amount since Ba Sing Se.

She can't think about that.

Forcing the thought away with a newfound will to prove Zuko wrong—what she's proving wrong, she has no clue—she puts all her strength into her legs. Finally—_finally_—they seem to reach a long expanse of land.

They've plateaued. Grass stretches beyond them until it dips out of view. To their sides are lush forests, somehow surviving the thin air.

"Keep moving forward," says Zuko.

One of the soldiers looks at Katara and Iroh, who are both pale in the face. But one glance at Zuko causes the soldier to swallow. "Yes, my prince."

The soldiers move forward through the short grass. Katara and Iroh trudge behind them, and Zuko is at the front, his fists clenched and his right eye scanning his surroundings with a terrifying intensity. _He looks like Ozai, _thinks Katara.

The forests around them thin out until all there is left is short grass. It disappears into nothingness behind them, but at least there's no more hill, Katara notices with relief. She opens her mouth to suggest a break when Zuko beats her to it.

"We've gotten through the hard part," says the prince. "Uncle, let's have my lesson."

Iroh looks surprised. "Are you certain, Prince Zuko?"

"Yes. Waterbender, come here. Give my uncle some strength. Then we'll begin my lesson. You all can take a break," says Zuko. "But we're leaving as soon as my lesson is done. The temple is close. I know it is."

* * *

"That's enough for today, Uncle," says Zuko. His face is red with exhaustion. "Let's keep going. Not much further. This is as high as the mountain gets. I remember the location from my tutor."

Somehow, it's only just past midday. Then Katara remembers that Zuko woke them all up at dawn. They _have_ been walking for a long time, but at least the terrain is no longer sloping.

"You know," says Iroh good-naturedly as Zuko begins to lead them through the grass minutes later, "you have done good work today, Prince Zuko."

"Thanks," says Zuko grudgingly.

The soldiers beside Katara don't say anything, but they look surprised. Katara can't tell if they aren't used to Zuko being thankful or if they thought Zuko was as bad as everyone said.

"But 'good work' isn't _good enough,_" adds Zuko. "So don't patronize me, Uncle."

Of course. Katara rolls her eyes. The soldiers beside her sigh.

"I was just going to offer some tea as a reward."

"I don't want tea."

"Your loss," says Iroh, who somehow procures a cup of steaming tea from within his robes.

"How did you even have the time to—" begins Zuko, stopping in his tracks, before he throws his hands up in the air. "Unbelievable. I can't find this Agni-forsaken temple and all you're doing is sipping on tea."

"It's a special blend," says Iroh.

"If it's that good, maybe we can give it to the Avatar as a peace offering when we find him! But we need to find him first to do that." Zuko shakes his head. "Come on, men. We need to find this temple. Which seems to be completely nonexistent!"

One of the soldiers points over the ledge. "I don't know, Prince Zuko. The Western Air Temple has always been described as backwards."

Zuko's eye widens.

Across the ledge, on the other side of the chasm between the two mountains, is a massive structure built into the side of the other plateau across from them, halfway consumed by mist.

"_That's_ the temple?" says one of the soldiers. "That's… incredible."

"Don't gawk!" says Zuko. Katara's pretty sure he's gawking himself. "Let's think about how we'll get to the other side."

He stands still for a moment as Iroh sips his tea contemplatively. "We could use vines," thinks Zuko aloud. "Or we could—we could—"

"We could take that land bridge," says Iroh, pointing.

"We could use the waterbender," says Zuko, too absorbed in his thoughts. His face morphs into an ugly scowl. "But she's not strong enough."

"I'm _right_ here," says Katara.

"We could take that land bridge," says Iroh again.

"What?" says Zuko. He looks in the direction Iroh's pointing and sees a ledge pointing dangerously close to the temple. It's a dozen meters below them and to their left, masked by fog. "Don't be ridiculous, Uncle. That's a dangerous ledge. It doesn't connect with the temple."

"It seems as though it used to," says Iroh. "Why don't you take Katara with you and let us know if you can get across?"

* * *

_Here I am,_ thinks Katara bitterly. "Don't put your foot there. You'll slip."

"Be quiet. You have no clue what you're talking about." Zuko's foot experiments with his hold on the ledge, which turns out to be a destructed pathway to the temple—but it's enough debris to connect with _some_ part of the temple, and rather than take the safe way of letting Katara freeze _some_ of it (because she's not good enough for all of it), he's aiming for not using her at all.

"At least I've been outside the Fire Nation," says Katara. "You've been in the palace all your life."

"And the faster I get the Avatar, the faster I get to go back," says Zuko. "Ow!"

He refastens his hold on the ledge above him. Katara peers past his hands to his ankle, which is twisted weirdly to the side. "Really, Zuko?"

"_Prince_ Zuko," he mutters. "And it's not a big deal. See?" He lets go and stands rather unsteadily on the rocks. "Look. I'm good. Call Uncle and the soldiers. We'll wait here a bit so I can gather my strength."

She turns over her shoulder and narrows her eyes; the mist is strong, and she can barely make Iroh and the three soldiers out from the plateau. "I don't know if your uncle can make it down this ledge," she says to him. "Your men, sure. But I don't know about him."

Katara can practically hear the grimace in Zuko's voice. "We have to try. Unless you know a different way."

"No," says Katara. "I don't."

When she turns to look at him, she sees Zuko's brow furrowed in something she can't pinpoint. "Lu Ten would be better at this," he says to himself. "What would Lu Ten do…?" Then, as though catching himself, he turns a bright red and sputters at her, "Hurry up and call them down here!"

She hollers to them and sees their figures move to the edge of the plateau. One soldier anchors a rope on the ground and begins making his way down. The other two fasten Iroh with a rope. She holds her breath.

The man makes it down the edge of the plateau with amazing grace and poise. She breathes a sigh of relief. _This is Iroh you're talking about,_ she thinks to herself. _The Dragon of the West. He'll be alright._

"Good," says Zuko behind her as the soldiers and Iroh approach them at the ledge. She and Zuko are already waiting on the other side, past the mound of rubble. "Can you make it down?"

"We'll find a way, my prince," says one of the soldiers.

Satisfied, Zuko says to Katara, "My men are strong. Don't doubt them."

"You're right," she replies. "That's not what Lu Ten would do."

Zuko flushes and doesn't say another word.

* * *

She's busy healing Zuko's ankle when a messenger hawk comes for him. "Who is it from?" he demands, trying to stand. Katara holds his ankle in place and he almost trips before catching himself. "Who?"

"A message from… Commander Zhao," says the soldier, looking confused.

Something akin to hope brews in his eyes. "Give it here," says Zuko, holding out his hand. "It—it could be important!"

When he has the scroll in his hands, Katara has to wrestle his ankle in place. "Sit still!" she says. "Calm down. You'll aggravate it."

He tears the scroll open and reads it aloud hastily, ignoring her. "Prince Zuko," he reads. "It is with pleasure I inform you of my departure from the Fire Nation to sail the seas in search of the Avatar—" He halts mid-sentence, hope turning to anger. "This is ridiculous! That snake? He's searching for the Avatar too?"

"Who's Zhao?" says Katara. Then she bites her lip. She didn't mean for that come out.

"He's filthy," says Zuko, ignoring her slip of tongue. She guesses if it'd been any other person, Zuko would have corrected her lack of a title when referring to the commander. "He's on my father's war council, and everything he does is… he's a conniving sneak!"

She lets the incandescent blue fade from the water around his ankle and she tucks her element back into her waterskin. "And he's hunting the Avatar, too?"

"Yes!" The word is sharp with fury.

"Calm down," says Katara. "All you have to do is stay ahead of him. Just one step ahead of him at a time."

"Easy for you to say," says Zuko. He crumples the letter, not bothering to read any more of it. "I'm not even fourteen. I'm on my own with one measly ship and a small crew of men who don't know anything, stuck with a failed general who couldn't even finish the siege of Ba Sing Se. Zhao? He's got a whole fleet. He has power up to his eyes." Zuko's words are bitter—even more bitter than when he tells Katara every so often that she shouldn't be there. "I know the man's a liar. He'll tell me he'll help me find the Avatar, but he'll take all the honor himself, and—and I'll never be let back home."

His voice has long since faded to a whisper. Katara pushes herself up from her knees and takes the rumpled letter from him. "I'm going to hold onto this," she says. "And I'm going to read it. Okay?"

Zuko folds his arms over his chest. "I'll bet you ten gold pieces that he doesn't say anything worthwhile."

She shrugs and cautiously unravels the scroll. What a shame—the penmanship is beautiful, something Katara most likely will never achieve in her life. Calligraphy has never been her strong suit.

He's right when he says Zhao doesn't mention anything worthwhile. All Zhao talks about is his new fleet and his blessings from Fire Lord Ozai—she specifically holds this fact from Zuko—and Zhao soon reaches one of Katara's top most detestable people, even though she's never even heard of him before today, let alone seen him or anything of the like. When she's done, she crumples the letter back up and looks up at Zuko. "He sounds like he has his head sorely up his backside."

Zuko snorts. "That's the first reasonable thing you've said all week," he tells her. "And you're probably right. His head is so far up his rump that all he hears is his asinine success." He aims his finger at the ball of parchment in Katara's palm and shoots a line of fire at it. It jumps and bursts into a small flame; Katara yelps and lets it drop as it flickers into ash.

"That's his opinion," says Zuko darkly. "We're not getting involved with him."

* * *

Hakoda of the Southern Water Tribe is, by nature, not an inquisitive man. He takes things as they come and solves the problems that arise as a result. His son is certainly inquisitive. But he can't think about that. He hasn't been home for a long time.

He can't go home, not until he finds Katara. _I'm sorry, Kya. I have to find her._ He hopes that Sokka will be able to hold his own without him. _He's a strong kid,_ Hakoda thinks. _He'll learn what to do._

There's a knock on his cabin door. "Chief Hakoda?"

_Kiwea,_ he thinks. "Come in."

The warrior opens the wooden door and steps inside, shutting the door with barely a click. "Chief, there are Fire Nation ships on the horizon."

Damn.

"If you ask me, Chief Hakoda," continues Kiwea, eyes alight with young adrenaline, "we can take 'em."

Kiwea reminds Hakoda of his son. But even more than that, Kiwea reminds him of Katara, because he's stunningly smart. But the young man has been a warrior for a long while. The similarity with Hakoda's children ends there.

"I appreciate the sentiment, Kiwea," says Hakoda. "I don't know if we can."

"We can!" The warrior pumps his wrapped fist. (Ironically, he got it from a scuffle with a Fire Nation soldier a week ago.) "Lemme at 'em, Chief."

Had they still been at the Southern Water Tribe, Hakoda probably would have left Kiwea behind. Just so Sokka would have a friend. But they need all the hands they can get, and Kiwea is a young warrior whose motivation is distinctly difficult to come by naturally.

"I can do it, Chief," Kiwea adds.

"You probably can," agrees Hakoda. "But I'm not going to steer our _wooden_ ship to a significantly larger fleet of Fire Nation soldiers. We'll be burned to the bottom of the ocean."

Kiwea's face drops. "So how are we going to get past them?"

"I don't know. But if we can see them, they can see us. Take down our flags. Hard a-starboard. We're avoiding those ships."

"But they might tail us," says Kiwea. "Right?"

"Get out the fishing gear, then. We're on a fishing mission today."

"Yes, Chief," says Kiwea. He opens the cabin door and tells Bato, who's standing outside. The door shuts behind him.

A second later, Hakoda hears Bato yell, "Chief orders hard a-starboard. Everyone get their fish nets! Might as well be useful—we're feasting on hippo catfish tonight, boys!"

A distinctive _whoop!_ follows Bato's words. Hakoda smiles. At least these kids are pretty happy.

* * *

**Kind of a filler chapter… with stuff happening soon! Thanks for the patient wait, guys. The last week has been a huge exam week for me.**

**I will be putting up rough sketches of character designs in the coming week on my profile. Stay tuned! (I especially want to introduce Rei and Kiwea to you guys!)**

**Thanks for reading! Please review!**


	8. Chapter 8

**Disclaimer: **in no way shape or form do I own this wonderful franchise.

**Notes: **whoa whoa whoa guys. Sorry for the long wait. I've been super busy, what with a goddamn research paper and like 219384756 different exams. Thanks for sticking with me. You all are the beeessst. Keep it up! The link to character concept art is at the end of the chapter—the characters look vastly different than in the show! More info after at the end of the chapter. Don't forget to review at the end! Reviews are the light at the end of the dark tunnel!

Oh and let's not talk about book 4 of Korra please. Or else I'm going to cry. You'll see my tears seep through your screen. I refuse to believe twelve years of this amazing world is coming to an end.

Enjoy!

* * *

**Chapter 8**

"There you go, Kya. Nice and easy. There, dear. Doesn't that taste nice?"

Sokka watches his mother chew on the fish slowly, as though tasting it for the first time. Gran-Gran smiles encouragingly from the corner of his eye as she forks up another mouthful and holds it high. "Doesn't this look good? Here you go, dear."

"Hey, mom," says Sokka, as she swallows and opens her mouth for the next bite. "Do you wanna hear about training today with the kids?"

"Not now, Sokka," says Gran-Gran. "Please. Let your mother eat her supper."

"But—"

"Sokka."

"Fine," says Sokka, his shoulders slumping. "Mom, I'm going to be back soon. I love you."

"I love you, too, Sokka," says his mother finally, casting sad blue eyes on him. Then she opens her mouth for another bite.

Sokka pushes past the igloo flap and narrows his eyes at his dim surroundings. Now that it's nearing the fall equinox, the days are beginning to be completely dark, with light peaking over the horizon for a few hours at most. Though the rest of the world feels equal hours of sun and moon, here, the darkness stays. And it's during this time Sokka feels most useless. His sister's birthday is arriving and instead of a celebration, it will be another marker of a year gone past without her.

His father is gone to look for Katara, as are all the other warriors. Even his favorite older warrior—Kiwea—is gone to search for his lost sister. Ever since her message arrived, he and his mother were more at ease, but it was a long road until then.

Sokka can remember the day she was taken as if it were yesterday. He can remember the shock on his mother's face as her daughter was taken away on the steel ships with raven flying from the skies, and he can remember the slow detachment she exuded when his father left to find her. That was years ago. And now—though his mother has gotten better with Katara's message—Sokka's mother, Kya, is a woman without life in her bones.

It comforts Sokka to know that she can still speak, can still appreciate him as her strong son. If Sokka's honest with himself, his mother is a strong woman. Protective, almost to the point of death, over her family.

Sokka doesn't want to think about what might happen if something happens to him. His mother will die without him, his father, and Katara. Of that he has no doubt. So he strives to make her days a little brighter, her nights a little happier, and her heart a little lighter. His days are made with stories and jokes. He can't imagine a day away from the pole. He can't leave. Not with his family like this. Not when he has to protect them.

_Hurry up, Katara,_ he thinks, sitting himself on the cold snow and staring at the stars above him, his chin nestled over the knees he's drawn up to his chest. _Hurry up and come home. I'm the older one, anyway. I should get a chance to see the world, too._

* * *

The temple is unlike anything Katara's ever experienced in her short life. It reminds her a little of the Southern Water Tribe. Though the igloos back at the South Pole were made from solid ice, here, the rooms are made of stone. It's clear that the air nomads used the materials around them and carved the side of the plateau carefully to fit their needs. It's nothing like the Fire Nation, which brought in imported goods to construct their homes and buildings.

Iroh looks, for the most part, rather familiar with his surroundings. Katara finds herself unsurprised. When she brings it up, all Iroh says is, "Oh, yes. I have been here before." And he doesn't continue. He only smiles at her pleasantly.

When she looks away, though, she misses his brief look of tired loss.

"We're going to search this temple," says Zuko. "If the Avatar is here, then we might already be out of luck. The Avatar probably knows we're here, too. Search the temple quickly. We need to find the Avatar before Commander Zhao."

"So we should split, Prince Zuko?" inquired one of the three soldiers.

"Yes." Zuko frowns into the distance behind all of them. "Every room needs to be searched. Every hall. Every corner of this temple. If we can't find the Avatar, we're going to find some clues." He pauses, his eyes shifting to Katara. "You. Go with them. Alert me immediately if you find the Avatar."

"I don't know what the Avatar looks like," she admits.

"Neither do I, but do you think that's stopping me?" says Zuko, rolling his eyes. "He's going to look like a monk. And he'll probably be very powerful."

"Good idea," says Katara. "Send an eleven year old amateur waterbender to fight the Avatar."

The soldier beside her coughs. He looks as though he's murdering a smile to keep it from showing.

"Whatever! If you find anything, you better let me know!"

He stomps away and Iroh looks apologetic. "I will take care of my nephew," he tells them. "You four should search the temples."

"Of course," say the soldiers, bowing respectfully. One of them nods to Katara, who casts a glance at Zuko's retreating figure.

But she can't go with him this time. Something is bothering him, something that popped into his mind in the last minute, something that Katara can't figure out. _It's not like you should try,_ she thinks to herself. _It's not your job. The only reason you're here is because you can't go back to the capital. Or else you'll be in the prisons._

Her mind ventures to Rei as she follows the soldiers away from Zuko and Iroh. She wonders how he's faring. _No doubt well,_ she thinks. She imagines him with the other servants, running after the princess, getting pity from everyone because of his severed arm.

She immediately stops herself. Rei is her _friend. _She can't be _jealous_ of her friend, not when he lost someone so near and dear to him. Although, she has to admit it to herself, he _could've_ written to her. Or at least try to write to her. Right?

But Zuko's intent on keeping any communication strictly Avatar related. Katara notes this with irritation. "Stupid prince," she grumbles quietly to herself, not caring if the soldiers hear her. If Rei tries to write to her, she can't get his letters! All because of some stupid prince.

The whole thought of it spoils her mood rather quickly. So when one of the soldiers suggests splitting up to look more around with more efficiency, she understandably grows more and more irritated when they try to figure out who Katara should go with.

"I'm not useless," she says to them tightly. "We can all go separately."

"The prince would have our heads," says one of them. "One of us should be with you."

"It's okay," says Katara, sighing. "I know it's a lot of trouble. I'll just wait here. You all go ahead and search."

So they do. And Katara has to admit to herself that they _are_ nice people, that she shouldn't treat them so poorly. But when she thinks of soldiers, she thinks of the tower and the siege.

She wanders by herself, peering into a couple rooms here and there, forcing herself to stay on guard. She can't help herself; the air is so pure, the stones firm and the sunlight over the edge of the plateau warm. Katara is at peace, for once, not in the company of anyone but herself and the air around her.

"Why were they killed?" she asks herself quietly, running her hands on the smooth wall of an empty room. "Why would people come here and kill others?" There's nothing violent about her surroundings, nothing at all. Of course. Everything violent came from the Fire Nation.

She thinks of Lu Ten suddenly. And then Iroh. _Not everything. _

Of course, she knows that the air nomads were killed off because of the search for the new avatar. She learned all about that from Jao Ra and Rei. But to kill off an entire race whose homes looked like… this? The embodiment of peace? She feels completely at ease here. She doesn't feel powerful, per se, not as if she has been waiting all her life for this moment, but she _likes _it here. Too bad they're only here to find the avatar.

Katara squints at the far wall. There is a number of webs inside a crevice she would have missed otherwise, if not for the curious string patterns. She moves closer and delicately blows at the webs, watching as they split and let her eye peer through the crack to a hidden room.

She almost screams. She can see skeletons upon skeletons. Her eyes are unused to this sort of scene—she has seen blood and severed arms, courtesy of Rei, and she has also seen lifeless bodies, courtesy of Jao Ra, but she has never seen any carcass of any living thing. Backing away from the crack in the wall, she turns around with a sway in her step and carries her stomach with a tight hand. If she isn't careful, she'll lose whatever is still in her belly from the pitiful meal they had earlier.

"Zuko," she breathes. It's the only conscious thought in her mind. She has to find Zuko. Where is he? She has to get away from this place, this awful place that's been tainted by fire and corruption and—

"There she is!"

She balks.

"Waterbender," says a voice behind her, a voice she barely recognizes as one of the three soldiers—she should learn their names, but honestly it's beyond her at this point—"are you alright?"

"I'm okay," she says, making it up on the spot. "It's the altitude. I'm not feeling well."

The soldiers sigh in slight relief. "Thank Agni," says one of them. "The prince would have our heads if..." He lets the end of it taper off. "Let's just go find him. The avatar isn't here. Time to move on to the rest of the temples."

"How long do you think we'll be following the prince around?" says the second soldier.

"However long it takes to find the avatar."

"Let's be real. He's not going to find the damn avatar. It's been a hundred years and no one's gonna find him. We're stuck with this stupid prince for nothing and we'll never get back to the Fire Nation."

"Well, we just have to suck it up, then, don't we?" says the first soldier. "Come on, waterbender. Let's get you to the prince and his uncle."

* * *

"The _altitude?_" says Zuko incredulously. Beside him, Iroh sighs. "Prince Zuko, perhaps Katara is simply unaccustomed to—"

"I can handle this, Uncle!" snaps the prince. Iroh shuts his mouth. The soldiers look at each other—something's happened between the two of them.

Zuko turns his eye on Katara. "Altitude. You were imprisoned in a tower—in a _volcano_—for a year. You'd think you would be—"

"It's been a little while!" says Katara heatedly.

"Leave us," says Zuko, bringing a hand to the bridge of his nose. "Go pack our things for when we leave."

As soon as all of them are gone, with silence emanating from Katara like a disease, Zuko brings his hand down from his face and obviously does his best to keep his cool. "I'm not stupid, you know. You've had plenty of time to adjust to the change in _altitude_ as we were climbing," says Zuko. "The only reason I'm not letting you off like my uncle and my soldiers is because _I _have a mission to complete. But I'm not _cruel,_" he adds, exhaling roughly through his nose. "So I'm going to ask you this not as a prince with a mission, but as someone who takes care of his crew, like a man with honor. What did you find?"

And she tells him. It's hard not to with the feeling of sick disgust rolling around in her stomach. She tells him about the skeletons, the wooden beads hanging from their necks, the shadows falling across their skulls, the sheer _number _of them lying on top of each other. She doesn't tell him, though, that the image of the peaceful Western Air Temple has been forever tainted with violence. He doesn't get close or move any further. He only casts one golden eye on her and for a moment, she feels like she's sitting with Lu Ten.

"So I was right," he says when she's finished. "It wasn't the altitude." Something about his voice is tense and uncomfortable.

"No, it wasn't," she yields.

He folds his arms over his chest, his eyebrow rising. Though he's only a couple years older than her, he's doing his best to act like a "man with honor", or whatever he wants to be. "You won't like it when I say this, but you have to toughen up. This is a war. You'll see skeletons. Those skeletons are from the raids, when the Fire Nation came to find the avatar. To clean up the temple, they probably tossed all the casualties into that room."

"_They tossed—_"

"Toughen up!" repeats Zuko. "Haven't you gone to Ba Sing Se? Haven't you seen what my uncle has seen? What my cousin—" And then he stops, flushing red, angry and frustrated all at once. "I'm sorry you saw what you saw. But we can't be hindered by—my mission can't be hindered by—you have to deal with it. That's the point of what I'm saying."

Katara breathes in deeply and tries to settle her stomach. "Okay. Okay, I'll try."

Zuko nods, as if trying to assure himself, as well. "Then get up. Let's go. We need to get to the Northern Air Temple next."

* * *

They don't reach the ship until the next day, at nightfall, when the air is brisk and sharp with evening autumn air. As soon as Zuko dismisses the three soldiers who accompanied them—their names are Hua, Maji, and Tuzen, Katara finally learns—they rush below deck to tend to their aching limbs. The trek was tiring and Katara's legs threaten to collapse under her weight. But she holds herself as best she can, reminded by the fact that as soon as Zuko is out of sight, she can breathe a sigh of relief.

Zuko tersely thanks Iroh for coming with him and then shouts a heading at his crew. They heed his commands to set course for the Northern Air Temple, because spirits forbid they allow_ Commander Zhao _to catch up with them.

When she's finally able to go below deck, the three soldiers are surprisingly waiting for her. "Are you alright?" one of them—Hua—asks.

She tells them yes, she's fine, and asks what's going on. "Nothing that concerning," continues Hua. "But the prince just threw up a whole day's worth of meals into a bucket. We don't know if he's coming down with something, but we wanted to check if you were okay. Especially since you weren't feeling well yesterday."

"Thank you," she says, bewildered at their kindness. "I'm alright now. What's wrong with Zuko?"

Long used to her lack of titles when referring to Fire Nation royalty and other officials, Tuzen shakes his head. "No clue. Sometimes I wonder how you kids are so resilient, though. Hate to say it, but it's refreshing to see the prince be a little human."

They leave her to think on that note with a brief goodnight (and a promise from her to Maji if she feels under the weather again). _Human, _she thinks. And then a flash of the hidden room in the Western Air Temple flitters through her mind's eye.

_Human,_ she repeats in her head. Zuko is still a child, like her, fourteen in a handful of months.

It won't be until another couple of days when she learns from Iroh that Zuko has been waking up with the word "bones" on his parched and gasping tongue.

* * *

It's just a fishing trip, he remembers telling the Fire Nation soldiers who demanded their business on the waters. It's just a fishing trip around some of the colonies. Just a way to make some coin, just a way to keep their stomachs full until they can sell the hoard back home and get some more food for their families.

And he remembers it went well, until one of them spotted his piercing on his right ear. "What's _this?"_ snarled one of the firebenders, instantly suspicious. "A peculiar tradition for a _colonist_, right?"

"I got it from a great beast I shot down," Kiwea remembers saying, his heart thundering behind his ribs. He remembers how much control it took him to keep his breath long and even.

And he remembers the chief placing a hand on his shoulder, steadying his racing heartbeat. "We all reaped the prizes," he remembers Hakoda saying. "We are a family on these waters when we fish. A beast of a great size is a prize in and of itself, so he had his ear pierced with the tooth of the serpent as proof of his success. The rest of us had good meals that week."

But the story is too brotherly for them. Too alike to a pack of moon wolves on the hunt. "A fine story for your prison mates," he remembers the firebender saying liltingly, "_water tribe."_

He remembers the wooden ship rocking dangerously as the firebenders shoot fire from their fists to every corner possible; he remembers Hakoda leaping for a spear and battling the three closest benders; he remembers being thrown overboard and into the sea, water suffocating him until his vision swam alarmingly and until he saw the light of fire above him. He remembers being lifted onto a steel ship and watching the rest of his fellow warriors escape by their teeth as the firebenders retreat with him on board. But all that matters is the chief is safe. If Kiwea has learned one thing from spending a few hard years at sea, it's that those warriors are his brothers, and that those brothers are bound to him by spirit far more than by blood.

And now, as he is brought to bars at a tower far, far away from wherever his chief is, all he can think about is how glad he is that his life has been taken in exchange for his tribe's freedom. _Let them do what they want,_ thinks Kiwea viciously. _I'll never talk. I'll never give them anything. _Here, these prisoners are his friends. Those who went against the wishes of the Fire Nation will always be his friends.

When he is tossed into a cell, alone and dirty, he stares at the steel door with purpose. They won't break him. Not him. Not Kiwea, son of the Southern Water Tribe, young warrior and lone wolf in the heart of the Dragon's body. He is here for his chief and his brothers. Tui and La have put him here for a purpose, and Kiwea will not rest until he has found his calling here in the prison of the Fire Nation capital, where Fire Lord Ozai sits not even a half hour away.

The next morning, he is brought out for interrogation. "I won't say anything," he spits to the sheriff in front of him. "I hope you all drown on the seas you try to conquer."

"You water tribe trash are all the same," the sheriff says coldly, and he's pulled out of the dark, dank room by his chains within ten seconds.

"Where to, _brother?"_ Kiwea asks his guard darkly. "Back to my comfortable abode?"

"Shut your mouth, water tribe," says the guard. "Be glad you aren't a bender. If you were, you'd be begging for the treatment you have now."

Something in Kiwea's mind rattles. "Oh, really?" he retorts, hoping to goad the guard on. But the guard says nothing more. Kiwea frowns and resorts to memorizing the way back to his cell. _Stupid men,_ he thinks. _They should know better than to keep prisoners like me without blindfolds._

A light approaches them as they clink through the stone hall. Soon, another guard with a prisoner chained behind him approaches.

"You got him out of the way, then?" says the other guard. Kiwea's own guard juts his head forward in what he assumes is a yes, and the other guard continues, "I'm taking this one in. Look at him. Hasn't said a word for a month now."

The light from their bending falls on the other prisoner's figure, a lank teenager with hollows in his cheeks and deadened mud brown eyes on tan skin. The first thing Kiwea notices is the missing arm. The second thing he notices is that his other hand is trapped in a metal clamp and his mouth is sealed with a gag. _A firebender,_ thinks Kiwea. It wouldn't have been so obvious without the gag, but it's clear that the gag is there to prevent firebreathing.

"You never know," says Kiwea's guard. "Today could be the day he breaks."

But to Kiwea, this prisoner has broken a long time ago. Those eyes are not the eyes of fear. This prisoner has long since overgrown fear, has long since felt the loss of hope, has long since acknowledged his breathing as a person.

"Well, I'll see you later," says the other guard. "Hopefully I can dump this one off soon. He can't have that much longer anymore. I mean, come on. How long can you keep quiet about a girl?"

He starts off then, and Kiwea's guard drags him away to his cell. There, he is left to ponder about the one-armed prisoner and a girl, and why it's so important in the first place.

* * *

**There you have it! I'm so sorry it took so long. College has been work after work after work. **

**As the fic goes on, we'll have more and more POVs from various areas as series characters are introduced. I hope Kya seems alright. Obviously we don't have much info on her from the series—only that she was brave enough to give herself up for her children.**

**Want to see rough (veeeeeery rough) concept art for Kiwea, Lu Ten, Jao Ra, Rei, Zuko, and Katara? It's all right here: articiannedottumblrdotcom/the-last-waterbender . Replace the word dot with actual periods. All concept art will be based around the ages they will be during when the show takes place. So even though Katara is almost twelve in this chapter, the concept art will depict her as fourteen. Rei is seventeen (fifteen in this chapter—kudos if you guessed him within like 1 second), Kiwea is twenty-two (twenty in this chapter), Jao Ra is fourteen (obvs deceased), Lu Ten is twenty-one (deceased), and Zuko is sixteen (thirteen in this chapter). So, for instance, though Zuko has his Awful Royal Banishment Ponytail of Honor right now in the fic, he'll have his other hairstyle the concept art because it's later in the series.**

**Thanks for reading and sticking with me! I promise to keep it up. Review please!**


	9. Chapter 9

**Disclaimer: **hahahahahahahaha

**Notes: **y'all are 127% the best. Please keep doing what you're doing! I live for this stuff.

* * *

**Chapter 9**

Kiwea wakes up to screaming each night.

He doesn't know who it is, at least not until a guard gets so fed up with it that he hears him stomp past his cell to one a few doors down. The steel barrier clangs open and the guard shrills, "Would you _shut up,_ you crippled freak!"

When the screams continue, he hears more guards wrestle the prisoner down—he hears the thrashing and the muffled shrieks and something that sounds like roaring fire; Kiwea briefly thanks the spirits that he isn't losing his mind like some people here in the prison.

The screaming happens every night. The mornings are filled with sitting in a dark, warm, musty room, waiting for something interesting to happen other than _"Where is the chief of the Southern Water Tribe?"_ because _La,_ he doesn't know, stop asking—and it isn't like he'll tell them, anyway.

The afternoons are dull. They are let out for only a half hour each day. Kiwea knows better than to show off his strength in front of the guards. He pretends to be weak, as though the prison life is slowly encroaching on his mind like it does to the prisoner who screams each night.

The nights are repetitive. That is, until Kiwea falls asleep and is woken up again by screaming.

But about a week and a half since his arrival at the prison—he's been counting, of course he has—he takes the time to observe the prisoners around him when they're let out for a brief amount of time. He isn't let out at long as the others. He assumes it's something to do with his "status"—he's a little more important.

A guard walks and mutters the words "cripple" and "deformed" rather bitterly, glancing back behind her back to narrow her eyes at someone masked by certain shadows. Kiwea frowns slightly and watches her disappear before his eyes turn on the person in the corner.

It's the teenager with only one arm.

He looks worse than before, Kiwea notices, and that's saying something. The boy barely has any meat on his bones and though he's fairly tall for his age, he looks as though he'll break if anyone lands even a finger on him. Several bruises show on his tan skin and his light brown hair is caked with grime. But his eyes—eyes that are shaped to house fire—are blank and soulless, and his cheekbones stand sharply against his face, pulling his skin taut around his eyes. He looks years older.

He also looks a little like Sokka, Chief Hakoda's son, who stayed behind to watch after the tribe after the warriors left. But Sokka is full and healthy and made of life—at least, when Kiwea last saw him. This boy is dead.

Kiwea stands and walks over to him, taking care not to attract too much attention. The boy's eyes don't move as Kiwea comes to a stop directly in front of him.

"Hey," says Kiwea, noting the twitching of the boy's fingers on his one arm. "You doing alright?"

The boy's fingers twitch. Otherwise, there's no reply.

_Let's try this again,_ thinks Kiwea. He sighs and plops to his bottom, sitting directly in front of the boy with his legs crossed tribal style. In their faded brown getups, worn at the edges, they can pass as siblings, though the boy's hair is far too light to be Water Tribe. His eyes match his tan skin, however, only a few shades lighter than Kiwea's complexion. "What can I do for you, Brother?"

The boy's eyes slowly lock onto his.

Something like dread fills Kiwea's stomach. This boy is far too old for his age, has seen far too much, has been through hell and back. Even the chief doesn't have these eyes. La, even the chief's _wife_ doesn't have these eyes, and the life disappeared from her world years ago, when her daughter was taken.

"You're new," says the boy in a dry whisper. "Aren't you?"

"A week and a half," says Kiwea. "I won't let the days get the best of me."

"You're smart," says the boy. "I should have done that." His eyes look past Kiwea now, into something unseen.

Kiwea twiddles his thumbs. "What's your name, Brother?"

"Brother…" The word sounds foreign to Kiwea's ears from the boy's tongue. "My name? I think it's Rei."

_He thinks it's Rei,_ Kiwea wonders to himself. _A Fire Nation name. _"It's nice to meet you, Brother Rei," says Kiwea. The best way to make friends is to call them Brother. They are, in spirit, brothers. Any prisoner here—any enemy of the Fire Nation—is his brother. "My name's Kiwea. You might've seen me before, on my second day here."

"I don't remember," says Rei. He blinks and twists his wrist slowly before letting it go slack against his knee. Something rattles—his legs are chained. _That's weird. He doesn't seem like much of a threat._

"Do you mind if I ask a few questions, Brother?" says Kiwea, opting to get as much out of the conversation as he can. Out of all the prisoners here, this boy—Rei—seems like the only other one subject to interrogation. Maybe he can get some answers.

Rei nods once.

"How did you lose your arm?" Immediately, Kiwea curses at himself. That isn't a question he should be asking, not yet. It very well may be a touchy subject.

But Rei only stares forward, as though the question went through one ear and soared out the other. "War," he says. "Siege. Infection." The words are short and clipped. It's a simple explanation, but they give the boy more attitude than anything he's said in the last three minutes.

Kiwea wants to leave the subject alone, but he also needs some more insight—the boy is a firebender. He remembers this fact well. So if he attained the injury in war, then he must have been a part of the Fire Nation army. _Maybe he can tell me more._

"So you were at the Siege of Ba Sing Se?" says Kiwea. He's only heard stories of it. Chief Hakoda always spoke of the siege with clenched teeth and hard fists.

Rei doesn't move. Kiwea tries to hold back some frustration—working with the boy was like working with a rock. Lifeless, almost useless. _You can't judge a brother like that,_ Kiwea reminds himself. _What did the chief teach you? A brother is not defined by his appearance. He is defined by his intentions._

"Do you mind if I ask you why you were imprisoned, Brother?" asks Kiwea finally.

Something shifts on the boy's face. Before Kiwea can understand what's happening, sparks fly from Rei's mouth and then the boy is breathing fire in a fit of rage.

This is the screaming boy. This is the cripple.

"IT'S HER FAULT," he screams as guards are suddenly all around them. The chains around his legs rattle and fire spurts from the palm of his left hand. Kiwea has a sudden vision of being back in the water, fire surrounding him as he suffocates, a furious firebender at his throat with breath as hot as the sun. "IT'S HER FAULT! WHY CAN'T SHE LEAVE ME ALONE? I HATE HER—SHE TOOK JAO RA FROM ME, SHE TOOK MY LIFE FROM ME, ALL I SEE AT NIGHT ARE THE BODIES—I HATE HER! I CAN'T FIGHT BECAUSE OF HER, I LOST MY ARM BECAUSE OF HER—I HATE HER—I HATE HER—IT'S_ HER FAULT—_"

The guards clamp metal around his left fist and force his mouth open, shoving a rag into his mouth that begins to burn as soon as they do. They hoist him by his shoulder and legs as Rei screams fire into his cloth and the embers fly from his mouth as the rag sits on his tongue in flames. They drag him away and the boy continues to scream.

* * *

"Sir, there are Fire Nation ships on the horizon."

"Give me that." Zuko snatches the scope from his soldier's hand and stares at the small specks of black in the distance, barely visible through the clouds. A second later, Katara hears him curse. She's never heard him curse so violently before. A consequence of life at sea, she thinks. "It's _him," _says Zuko. "Hot on our trail, too."

She's learned enough about Zhao to know that Zuko hates him like Zuko hates the bandage on his own face, if not worse. "Will he be following us like this the entire time?"

"I'll bet everything he will," says Zuko. "Either to find the avatar first or to come up with an accident that'll make it impossible for me to find him."

He doesn't expand on the "accident". Katara chooses not to respond.

"Where should we go, your highness?" says the soldier.

Zuko frowns. He turns to Iroh, who is standing patiently at his side as always. Iroh only smiles. "Your call, Nephew."

"Continue to the Northern Air Temple, then," says Zuko. "For now, we just have to focus on searching the temples. Although…" A peculiar look crosses his face. If Katara has to guess, he looks almost… thoughtful. "Head for the temple," he says again. "But I'll be back with more instructions later. Uncle, come with me." He pauses for a minute, and then says, "You too, waterbender."

She follows him below deck with no complaints.

* * *

"If he's going to follow us like this," says Zuko hotly, "then we're going to leave fake clues behind us."

The command comes as soon as Iroh places a steaming mug of tea in front of the prince. Surprised, Iroh looks at Zuko, as does Katara, and Zuko only says, "What? It's the smartest thing to do."

"It's sabotage, Prince Zuko," says Iroh, picking up another mug and pouring fresh tea into it.

"How in the four nations is it sabotage?"

Katara frowns as she accepts a mug of tea from Iroh. With the cold seeping into the ship day after day and night after night, the tea is more welcome than during the summer. "Thanks. But I'm also confused. I think leaving a trail of clues to mislead Zhao would be a good idea."

Zuko looks almost pleased.

"You must win the chase fair and square," says Iroh, shaking his head. "Manipulation is not the way to find your honor."

"But it's what my father would do," says Zuko, frowning.

Something in Katara snaps. Somehow, she's forgotten that Zuko is doing this for his father's good graces. His father, Fire Lord Ozai. His father, the Fire Lord. His father, the one who was going to throw her back in the prisons. His father, the bane of all evil. "_Oh,_" she says, higher pitched with that realization, "_That's_ why you're going to do it."

"Why else?" says Zuko, sensing her sudden shift in tone. His golden eye narrows and his nose wrinkles. "Don't get nasty with me, waterbender!"

"Or what? You'll send me off to your dad with a little ribbon? It's what he'd like, right?"

"Sure," says Zuko, folding his arms over his chest indignantly. "If that means he'll take me back, then yeah, I'd do it! But what he wants with a peasant like _you_ is beyond me!"

Katara stands suddenly and the tea in her mug instantly freezes. Out of the corner of her eye, Iroh is covering his face with his hand. Shame washes through her.

"Thank you for the tea, Iroh," she says, bowing to him. "But unfortunately, I can't be in a room with your high and mighty nephew at the moment. As for _you,"_ she says, turning cold eyes on Zuko, "why don't you just leave me at the Northern Air Temple with all the other clues you're going to write up? I'm sure Zhao would love to deliver me to your dad."

Zuko pales right before she turns to leave. As soon as she swivels on her heel, he says, "Wait! Wait. Agni. Wait. Fine."

Her feet stop moving. She should leave anyway, just to prove a point, but she knows Iroh is sitting there wishing for a peaceful agreement.

"Can you turn around?" comes Zuko's voice from behind her. "I can't talk to you if you don't bother listening."

"I'm listening," she says grudgingly. She turns back to face him before mimicking his position at the small table like she'd been doing before. It's for the best, anyway, reasoning with him. If she's going to be stuck with him on this ship for La-knows-how-long, they need to be able to get through a discussion without breaking out in a fight. _Especially since someone's feelings get hurt,_ she thinks nastily about Zuko before grimacing and forcing the thought out of her head.

"Say I won't go through with my fake clue plan," says Zuko. "Say I need to come up with something else to get Zhao off my trail. What would you suggest, waterbender?"

"Me?"

"Yes, you. You're a waterbender, right?" His visible eye rolls. Beside them, Iroh chuckles and pours himself another mug of tea. Katara sneaks a glance at him and finds she was right about Iroh wanting a peaceful agreement—he is smiling, apparently happy that the problem has been resolved.

"I would just… keep straight," says Katara. "Like Iroh said."

"But you were with me in the beginning."

"That was before I knew why you suggested it."

Zuko exhales steam. "So that's your only other suggestion?" he asks tersely, clearly doing his best to avoid the previous subject.

"Well, for now, yeah," says Katara. "The only other thing I can think of is you actually _fighting_ him, but I don't know how bad this guy is for you to win. Not that I'm saying you're bad," she adds quickly, seeing Zuko turn red, "but that since he's a commander, he's probably really good."

"You know, Prince Zuko," says Iroh thoughtfully. Zuko's head turns to his uncle in anticipation. "I wonder what would happen if you picked up a nonbending fighting technique."

"You mean like swordplay?" says Zuko. "I used to. Back home." He frowns. "I was pretty good—but I was _supposed_ to be better at bending."

Somehow, the mention of swordplay interests her. "I never saw your sword practices."

"Master Piandao taught me, but my father didn't like it," says Zuko, flushing. "So he kept it kind of a secret. Except Azula knew, as always, as did my mother. But no one else did. Maybe if my father liked it, I—"

"Prince Zuko, please do not dwell on the past," says Iroh. "Dwell on the present. For instance, think about continuing your swordplay. If no one knows about your practices, you will have an advantage against the enemies. Many benders are weak once they are not in a position where they can bend. You can use this to your advantage, perhaps one day against Commander Zhao."

Zuko taps his finger on the table. "You think so?"

"I do," says Iroh. He smiles. Suddenly, it's as though Lu Ten is sitting right beside him, giving both Zuko and Katara the advice of a lifetime. _Do not dwell on the past,_ thinks Katara. _Dwell on the present._ _That must be what Iroh's doing. He's letting Lu Ten go for Zuko._

"But I can't get a teacher!" exclaims Zuko, frustrated. He blows air out of his mouth loudly and groans. "What a pain."

"I'm sure there are quite a few soldiers on your ship who know how to work with swords," says Iroh. "Do you have your own sword?"

A weird look appears on Zuko's face. "Yeah, I brought…" But then he stops, as though pained.

Both Iroh and Katara wait, the former more patient than the latter, and then Katara says, "So you have a sword?"

"Y-yes," says Zuko. "I brought… I brought my mother's."

Nonplussed, Iroh says, "_Where _did you find Lady Ursa's sword? I didn't know she was even trained."

"Swords," corrects Zuko, resigned. Now that he's gotten this far, it's clear he has to explain everything. "Master Piandao taught me with dao swords. And after mom left—" He pauses, shutting his eye, before inhaling. "Well, I went to her room and after a little while, found her swords. I guess she _was_ trained."

Katara doesn't ask who "Master Piandao" is, mostly because it doesn't appear important, but she gathers from all the talk that he is a famed swordsman. _Sokka would like that,_ she thinks to herself.

"It makes sense," says Iroh, pondering aloud. "She is not a bender and she has had her toil and trouble in the past. As Fire Lady, she must have always been on guard."

"So you have your mother's swords with you?" asks Katara._ Lucky,_ she thinks. _All I have is my necklace._

"Yeah," says Zuko. "But I hid them. Should I start practicing with them again?"

"Do you feel as though you need more guidance?" says Iroh.

"No," says Zuko. "I have it all down. I just need more time practicing, especially in the open where I won't be afraid of someone seeing me."

Iroh pours another mug of tea for Zuko, who doesn't say anything else. He only brings a hand up and pulls at his bandage slightly, his mouth twitching as he does, and Katara asks, "Does it hurt?"

Zuko stiffens before he replies, "No. It's just—sensitive."

He doesn't say anything else and she doesn't extend an offer. Instead, Iroh says, "When will you take off your bandage?"

When Katara looks back at Zuko, the prince's face is frozen in a look of bewilderment. Almost as though he's never thought of taking it off.

"You _are_ going to take it off, right?" says Katara.

"Of—of course I will!" says Zuko. "I just—" He fumbles at it, almost pulling it the bandage off completely; his mouth downturns and he holds it in place.

Katara almost tells him to just "drop it already" when Iroh stands and says, "Katara. Let's go see if I can find you a better room to sleep in now that we're back."

So she stands, picks up her newly refilled mug of tea, and follows Iroh out. When she glances at Zuko over her shoulder, he's readjusting the bandage on his face with a glare at the floor.

* * *

Her new room is, thankfully, not an empty closet. It's actually Gu's room, who tells her and Iroh that he's been sleeping in the _actual_ infirmary and that he doesn't need this room, so she gladly takes it. It's still small. But then again, the soldiers sleep in bunked rooms, so she's lucky.

"Iroh," she says before he leaves. "Thank you."

"You are _welcome,_ my dear," he says, smiling. "But why are you thanking me?"

"Well… because if it weren't for you, I'd still be locked up," she says. "You got me out and kept me out. Why did you?"

Iroh sighs. "Sometimes, my dear Katara, we cannot explain our actions. Only the spirits understand our destinies." He lets a beat of silence wave through his words before he adds, "Destiny is a funny thing, Katara. Perhaps you will understand that better than my nephew."

He bows then, shutting the door to Katara's new room—rather, Gu's old room—and leaves her to her own.

* * *

"So what does it say, sir?"

"It says to bring back the avatar," says Zhao. "Along with the petty waterbender that Prince Zuko picked up and took with him."

Beside him, the captain shifts. "What does the Fire Lord want with _her?"_

"Don't you know? She's the last waterbender of the Southern Water Tribe."

A frown creeps up against the captain's temples, moving his brows together. "The Northern Tribe is full of them. What's the big deal?"

"Captain," sighs Zhao, "tell me. If you had the chief's daughter in your possession, don't you think you would want her back?"

"What? Where did they find that out?"

"Prisoners break, Captain," murmurs Zhao. "Sooner or later, prisoners break. No matter what nation they're from. Even if they're from our own… they break."

The captain says nothing else; he only stands in place beside Zhao as Zhao brings the scope to his eyes, setting his sights on the speck in the distance. _Prize one,_ he thinks to himself, staring at the prince's ship. _And prize two will be coming shortly. _

"I want orders to begin building prison holds on the colonies," says Zhao. "Wherever the avatar is, we will capture and hold him until we can send him back to the Fire Nation. I won't allow some thirteen year old failure of a prince get a hold of the avatar before me."

"Yes, sir," says the captain. "And where shall we search first?"

"Wherever his royal highness leads us."

"Of course, sir."

* * *

**hmmmmmmmmm Zhao, you sneaky bastard.**

**Y'all are okay with Rei, right? A lot of people are pretty averse to OCs, and I tried to make him as far away as possible from a typical OC character (who kinda just shows up, helps out, and leaves/is praised). How about Kiwea? Kiwea is kind of like someone I imagine Sokka would have probably followed around a lot—he would have been attached to someone older than him other than just his dad, someone who was a warrior. At least, that's how I think. **

**Don't worry, I won't introduce any more OCs. Honestly, that's about it, with the exception of someone maybe in the far future of the fic. **

**Oh and by the way**** (this is kind of important): I'm completely disregarding the comics regarding Zuko's mother. To me, those comics did not happen. (I'm actually a pretty avid Urzai shipper too. Ja.) The only thing that's the same is how Azulon died (meaning Ursa gave Ozai poison and left), but otherwise, she never knew Ikem and she never had another kid and she never changed her face. Honestly, I'd think that a woman who loved her children so much would keep her memories about them. In a life full of shit with Ozai, you'd think she'd treasure something. So yes, those comics will be thoroughly ignored. (Ursa is, however, very important. Honestly I don't know why Zuko just took up swordplay. His dad doesn't appear to do it, neither do his forefathers, and Azula doesn't do it—it's a very unique trait that I think Zuko would have gotten from **_**someone**_** so I dragged Ursa into the whole thing.)**

**Review please! If you guys have questions, I'll be more than happy to do a little reply section at the end of each chapter. I can't promise how much plot I'll reveal but I will answer stuff like character traits, contemplations, etc. Also, how many of you are okay with this fic going M when the characters are older? This does not include full out sex scenes (although it can get pretty close). I don't think I could ever do a full lemon. But details may get a little more graphic and language more vulgar. Lemme know. Sorry for the long A/Ns lately!**


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